A research team led by Project Professor Yasushiro Kishimoto and Project Assistant Professor Shunya Kurokawa of Keio University verified the reliability of remote evaluation using online medical treatment for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their caregivers, and found that It was found that there was a high degree of agreement with face-to-face evaluation.
In Japan, 8.8% of elementary and junior high school students may have neurodevelopmental disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (according to a Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology survey). However, there is a severe shortage of child psychiatrists throughout Japan, and the average waiting period for a child's first consultation is said to be 2.6 months, with some cases taking up to 54 months, placing a heavy burden on caregivers. For this reason, there are expectations for online medical treatment, but there have been few studies on the reliability of remote evaluation for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, and there was a need to verify the reliability in comparison with face-to-face evaluation.
This time, the research group verified the consistency between remote and in-person assessments using the ADHD Rating Scale IV (ADHD-RS-IV). This assessment method complies with the diagnostic criteria for ADHD and is an important tool for assessing the frequency and severity of specific symptoms. Participants were 6 Japanese children and adolescents between the ages of 17 and 74 with a diagnosis of ADHD or ASD, and their caregivers, who underwent both in-person and remote assessments.
As a result, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC, which indicates the degree of agreement between multiple assessments) was 1 (the closer it is to 0.769, the higher the reliability), and 0.816 especially for children with ADHD as the main diagnosis. We have shown that remote evaluation using medical care matches the results of face-to-face evaluation with high accuracy.
The results of this study show that the effective use of online medical consultations can bring significant benefits to patients and their caregivers, such as shortening the waiting period for the first consultation, reducing hospital visit and waiting times, and reducing medical-related costs. It is expected that this will happen.
