Specificity and sensitivity of the DCDQ for children aged 8 to 10 years in Brazil

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) – Brazil for a group of children aged 8, 9 and 10 years, using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Mabc-2) as the gold standard, and to identify the cut-off point for each specific age. Method: We evaluated the motor skills of 100 students through DCDQ-Brazil and Mabc-2. The collected data were submitted to statistical analysis of association; cut-off points were defined through the Youden index and Roc curve (Receiver Operator Characteristic). This survey was submitted and approved by the Ethics Committee of Research on Human Beings of the Federal University of São Carlos (CEP-UFSCar). Results: The data revealed that DCDQ-Brazil does not show satisfactory validity for the analyzed Brazilian context in the sample of children aged 8 and 10, because the cut-off points are higher than what was defined in this research, in a ratio that varies from 4 to 7 points. Conclusions: there is need for future investigations on the data regarding the age of 9 years in order to use the DCDQ adapted to Brazilian children aged 8-10 years, in order to favor the early identification of DCD.