A pilot study to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) diagnostic scale for children in Nepal

Background: ADHD is a neuro-developmental childhood disorder that is characterized by three core symptoms; inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity 1. ADHD has been diagnosing and treating in Nepal, but we have no valid ADHD diagnostic tool to fit Nepalese culture and language till date. Current study is intended to develop and validate the ADHD scale for children in Nepal. So, initially pilot study was done as a part of tool development and validation. Methods: Items generation, scale development and scale evaluation were the three consecutive steps followed to develop and validate the scale. Pilot study was done for items clarity, assessing content validity and sampling adequacy. The total pilot study sample included 202 participants i.e.60 parents of ADHD children, 40 mental health professionals and 102 parents of school aged children from general population (GP). Results: The investigators developed an ADHD diagnostic scale with 21 items to diagnose ADHD for Nepalese children. It has been developed in Nepalese culture and Language. Pilot testing revealed strong content validity. Three sub-scales (Inattention, Impulsivity and Hyperactivity) were identified by using Principal Axis Factor Analysis. Sampling adequacy for factor analysis was tested by using Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) analysis which indicated that minimum of 100 sample was adequate for this study. Conclusions: The pilot study explored the feasibility of the development of proposed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder diagnostic scale to fit in Nepalese cultural context and language.