Development and psychometric evaluation of a Thai Diagnostic Autism Scale for the early diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Duangkamol Tangviriyapaiboon, Samai Sirithongthaworn, Hataichanok Apikomonkon and 4 others
PMID 34697914WHAT IT FOUND
A Thai autism diagnostic scale using observation and parent interview matched psychiatrists' DSM-5 diagnoses in 62 children aged 12 to 48 months, missing one case and producing no false positives.
Key findings
01TDAS agreed with psychiatrists' DSM-5 diagnosis (Kappa = 0.871), with one false negative and no false positives.
02In trial 2, evaluators agreed perfectly on ASD diagnosis for the 21 children (Kappa = 1.000).
03All 23 initial TDAS items had content validity scores of 0.71 to 1.00.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The concurrent-validity trial had only 62 children, below the number the authors had planned. All children were referred to a centre in Chiang Mai, so results may not apply to other Thai settings. Ages were not evenly distributed because participants came from a developmental surveillance referral pathway. The authors did not establish an appropriate diagnostic cut-off score. Several individual TDAS items had poor or fair agreement between evaluators. The study did not evaluate whether TDAS performs differently by child age. Parental socio-economic status and other possible confounders were not measured. The tool was culturally adapted for Thai children, so unfamiliar items may affect use elsewhere.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing interests. Funding came from Chiang Mai University, the Health Systems Research Institute, and the Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the agreement with psychiatrists as proof TDAS works everywhere or without training. It was tested in Thai referral children aged 12 to 48 months, the concurrent-validity trial had only 62 children, and the authors said a proper cut-off score still needs study.