The accuracy of the Learning Disability Screening Questionnaire (LDSQ) in classifying severity of impairment: A brief report

^†This manuscript was accepted under the Editorship of Ian Dempsey.

Abstract

Background Outcomes for people with an intellectual disability (ID) may differ depending on the severity of the condition. This study evaluated whether a tool used to screen for the presence of ID could also give an early indication of severity, in order to help inform future support needs.

Methods Multicategory receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to examine how well the Learning Disability Screening Questionnaire (LDSQ) could classify individuals (n = 238) in terms of severity of intellectual impairment.

Results Mean LDSQ scores increased across diagnostic categories from “severe impairment” to “no ID” as expected. However, overall classification accuracy was inadequate to justify extending the use of the scale to placing individuals in severity categories (VUS = .58 and Youden Index = .49).

Conclusions Although the LDSQ can accurately discriminate between those with and without ID, results indicated that it may not accurately classify individuals in terms of severity of intellectual impairment.

Keywords:

• Learning Disability Screening Questionnaire
• severity
• intellectual disability
• ROC analysis
• screening
• impairment category

Author note

No funding was received for the research. In terms of conflict of interest, the second author is also one of the authors of the screening tool being evaluated and receives a small amount of income for each one sold. The first author has been involved in previous evaluations of the screening tool and is related to the second author (daughter).

Notes

^† This manuscript was accepted under the Editorship of Ian Dempsey.