Authors:
Watkins RE; Elliott EJ; Mutch RC; Payne JM; Jones HM; Latimer J; Russell E; Fitzpatrick JP; Hayes L; Burns L; Halliday J; D'Antoine HA; Wilkins A; Peadon E; Miers S; Carter M; O'Leary CM; McKenzie A; Bower C
Authors notes:
BMJ Open. 2012;2(5):e001918.1-9
Keywords:
Diagnostic criteria, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Fetal alcohol syndrome, Guidelines
Abstract
To evaluate health professionals' agreement with components of published diagnostic criteria for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) in order to guide the development of standard diagnostic guidelines for Australia.
Of 139 health professionals invited to complete the survey, 103 (74.1%) responded, and 74 (53.2%) completed one or more questions on diagnostic criteria.
We found consensus agreement among participants on the diagnostic criteria for FAS, with the UW criteria most commonly endorsed when compared with all other published criteria for FAS.
When health professionals were presented with concepts based on the Canadian and IOM diagnostic criteria, we found consensus agreement but no clear preference for either the Canadian or IOM criteria for the diagnosis of PFAS, and no consensus agreement on diagnostic criteria for ARND.
We also found no consensus on the IOM diagnostic criteria for ARBD.
Participants indicated clear support for use of the UW diagnostic criteria for FAS in Australia.
These findings should be used to develop guidelines to facilitate improved awareness of, and address identified gaps in the infrastructure for, FASD diagnosis in Australia.