ArticlePediatric blood & cancer2025
Sensitivity and Specificity of a Signaling Question for Surveillance of Cognitive Functioning in Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease.
Article in Pediatric blood & cancer, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSickle cell disease (SCD) confers neurological risks that contribute to cognitive and academic difficulties. Clinical guidelines state that cognition should be monitored using signaling questions. However, evidence is lacking regarding the extent to which signaling questions accurately identify children with cognitive issues. PROCEDURE: Caregivers of youth with SCD between ages 7 and 16 years (n = 89) responded to a signaling question about their child's academic performance: "How would you rate your child's academic performance relative to their peers?" Response choices included below grade level, on grade level, or above grade level. Youth with SCD completed the Wechsler Intelligence Scale of Intelligence, Fifth Edition to assess cognitive functioning.
resultsMost children were described by caregivers as being on grade level (67%), followed by below grade level (21%), and above grade level (11%). Cognitive testing revealed that 36% of participants had a low IQ (≤85; i.e., ≥1 SD below the mean), 60% had an IQ within normal limits (86-114; i.e., <1 SD below or above the mean), and 4% had a high IQ (≥115; i.e., ≥1 SD above the mean). Academic performance grouping was significantly associated with differences across cognitive domains (all p < 0.001). Cognitive functioning varied by academic grouping for younger (ages 7-11; all p ≤ 0.002) but not older children (ages 12-16; all p ≥ 0.05). The signaling question's sensitivity for identifying those with cognitive difficulties was low (42%-54%); specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value estimates were acceptable (87%-93%, 74%-84%, and 53%-79%, respectively).
conclusionsAsking caregivers of children with SCD to report on academic performance is a simple method of monitoring cognition. Children rated as below grade level should be referred for cognitive screening or evaluation. However, this question will likely result in a high rate of false negatives, and additional questions may be necessary to determine when to refer patients without obvious academic concerns.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.