26452
ASD Screening Using Social Communication Questionnaires (SCQ) in 93 Primary Schools in Qatar

Poster Presentation
Saturday, May 12, 2018: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Hall Grote Zaal (de Doelen ICC Rotterdam)
F. Alshaban1, E. Fombonne2, M. Aldosari3 and I. Ghazal4, (1)Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Doha, Qatar, (2)Psychiatry, Pediatrics & Behavioral Neurosciences, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, (3)Center of Pediatric Neurology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, (4)King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA
Background: There is a scarcity of validated autism screening and diagnostic tools for Arabic-speaking individuals which presents a major challenge to clinicians and researchers in many countries around the world.

Objectives: to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the Arabic Version of the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ).

Methods: We started by translating the English version of the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) to Arabic language. The back-translation was reviewed by the publisher-assigned reviewer. Then we validated the questionnaires using a sample of 206 ASD cases with 206 age and gender matched controls. The screening cohort are children between the ages 5-12 years attending 93 main stream primary schools in Qatar randomly selected. The Arabic SCQ version sent to be filled by parents.

Results: 9074 SCQ filled, 56% females and 44% males, analysis showed 773 (9%) scored above cut-off (15), 165 (21%) were interviewed, out of which 16 cases were diagnosed with ASD using the ADOS-2 and DSM-5 criteria as a diagnostic tools. while 300 of those who scored below cut-off were interviewed, of which 2 were diagnosed with ASD.

ASD prevalence rate among students between the age 5-12 years attending main stream school found to be 1.4%.

Conclusions: SCQ found to be a reliable screening tool in detecting ASD in general population.

See more of: Epidemiology
See more of: Epidemiology