Mental health status of female overseas workers' children in the Colombo District.

Abstract

An interviewer-administered questionnaire [SDRIQ] to identify the factors associated with abnormal mental health in the children was prepared based on the findings of the focus group discussions [FGDs] with the teachers in the primary schools. The eligible OWs' children were identified through the Public Health Midwives [PHMs] in the Colombo district [including the PHMs in the Colombo Municipal Council]. The CBCL-S and SDRIQ were administered by trained interviewers to the PCPs of these children and age and sex matched L Ws' children in the same neighborhood Information on school performances and attendances of these children were obtained using a mailed questionnaire [S IF] and also by visiting the schools. FGDs with teachers and semi-structured interviews with PCPs were conducted to identify the problems of the OW sand the difficulties of the PCPs. The results indicated that the CBCL-S is a valid and reliable instrument to measure mental health status of the children aged 5- 1 0 years in Sri Lanka. The area under the ROC curve was 0.95 for both the girls [95 percent CI: 0.94-0.98] and boys [95 percent CI: 0.920.98]. At the cut off point of 39 its sensitivity and specificity were 90 percent and 88 percent respectively for boys and 89 percent and 92 percent respectively for the girls. The positive and negative predictive values were 92 percent and 85 percent respectively for boys. For girls both values were around 91 percent . Internal consistency [Cronbach's alpha