Tesfay Haileslassie, Sebsibe Girum, Tesfaye Tewodros
College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Debre Birhan University, Debre Birhan, Ethiopia.
Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Pediatric Health Med Ther. 2021 Nov 27;12:521-532. doi: 10.2147/PHMT.S300397. eCollection 2021.
Early childhood developmental assessment refers to the continual process of observing, gathering, recording, and interpreting information to make developmental and instructional decisions and measure young children's performance over time. Significant changes in the physical and neuropsychomotor developmental milestones take place in the first 2 years of life. Children younger than 3 years of age (36 months) who are at risk of having developmental delays may be eligible for early intervention treatment services. The study aimed to assess practice in early childhood developmental assessment and its determinants among health professionals working in public hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
This facility-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from September to April 2018, with a total sample size of 268 health professionals from six public hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The data were entered into EpiData software version 4.2, and analyzed by SPSS version 23 software for bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Significant associations were taken as <0.05 and the strength of associations was expressed using odds ratios.
The practice of early childhood developmental milestone assessment was found to be 27.8%. Being a general practitioner (AOR=23.826, 95% CI: 6.77-83.9, =0.000) or health officer (AOR=11.02, 95% CI: 2.1-58.812, =0.005), and work experience greater than 11 years (AOR=20.897, 95% CI: 1.5-291.49, =0.024) were significantly associated with good practice of early childhood developmental milestone assessment.
Practice of early childhood developmental milestone assessment remains poor. Training and sharing experiences among different professions, and assigning professionals with the highest levels of work experience in the service could improve the practice levels.
幼儿发育评估是指持续观察、收集、记录和解读信息以做出发育和教学决策，并衡量幼儿随时间推移的表现的过程。身体和神经心理运动发育里程碑在生命的头两年会发生重大变化。3岁以下（36个月）有发育迟缓风险的儿童可能有资格获得早期干预治疗服务。本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚亚的斯亚贝巴公立医院卫生专业人员在幼儿发育评估方面的实践及其决定因素。
这项基于机构的描述性横断面研究于2018年9月至4月进行，共纳入了埃塞俄比亚亚的斯亚贝巴六家公立医院的268名卫生专业人员作为样本。数据录入EpiData 4.2软件，并使用SPSS 23软件进行双变量和多变量逻辑回归分析。显著关联被定义为<0.05，关联强度用比值比表示。
发现幼儿发育里程碑评估的实践率为27.8%。作为全科医生（调整后比值比[AOR]=23.826，95%置信区间[CI]：6.77 - 83.9，P = 0.000）或卫生官员（AOR = 11.02，95% CI：2.1 - 58.812，P = 0.005），以及工作经验超过11年（AOR = 20.897，95% CI：1.5 - 291.49，P = 0.024）与良好的幼儿发育里程碑评估实践显著相关。
幼儿发育里程碑评估的实践情况仍然较差。不同专业之间的培训和经验分享，以及安排工作经验最丰富的专业人员提供服务，可能会提高实践水平。
