Screening for psychosocial problems in children attending the pediatric clinic at king khalid university hospital (kkuh) in Riyadh (K.S.A.)

Abstract

Introduction: Psychosocial Problems are highly prevalent among children and adolescents. One approach to facilitating recognition and referral of psychosocial problems is to use parent-completed screening questionnaire as part of routine primary care visits. Aim and methods: The purpose of this Study is to determine the prevalence and type of psychosocial problems among random sample of children attended the pediatric clinic at KKUH at the time of the study A 2 part questionnaire was designed for this study. The first part of the questionnaire contained basic biographic data in addition to items which reflect the socioeconomic status of the family. The second part of the questionnaire comprised of the inventory, which is a modified version of the Pediatric Symptoms Checklist (PSC). The inventory consists of 38 items classified into 5 categories. The total score of the inventory ranges from 0-114. Results: 312 questionnaires were completed. The average of the total score is only 22.3 out of 114. The lowest score was 0 and the highest was 84. The average scores of behavioral symptoms (BS) was the highest (7.03 out of 27) while that of the learning problems (LP) is the lowest (1.5 out of 18). The average score for the mood symptoms (MS) was 5.6 out of 24, that for personality characteristics (PC) was 4.5 out of 24 and that for somatic symptoms (SS) was 4.3 out of 24. Conclusion: This study revealed the feasibility of screening for behavioral problems among children in the outpatient setting. Implementing screening procedures for psycho-behavioral problems and training of pediatricians for such screening is necessary for the well-being of our children.