{
  "abstract": "Background\n\nData on neurodevelopmental disabilities in sub-Saharan Africa are scarce. Identifying children at the highest risk of neurodevelopmental delay could enable health workers to target these groups more effectively, improve resource allocation and programmatic focus.Objective\n\nTo develop and assess a model for predicting neurodevelopmental delay among two-year-old infants in Northern Uganda using easily obtainable predictors.Methods\n\nWe studied children born to women enrolled in a cluster randomized controlled trial (January 2018-March 2019) evaluating the effect of peer counseling on health facility births. At the trial's final visit (day 50), 1,804 children were enrolled. In November 2020, we followed up 1,421 children (78.8%) and assessed their neurodevelopment at 2 years using the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool. We used least absolute shrinkage and selection operator penalized regression with 10-fold cross-validation to select the best subset of predictors and assessed model performance using the area under the curve (AUC).Results\n\nOf the 1,421 children, 70 (4.9%; 95% CI: 3.6-6.7%) had neurodevelopmental delays. Of the 19 candidate predictors, six were retained in the final model (lambda = 0.0076): moderate wasting, prolonged neonatal hospitalization (up to 28 days), maternal education, place of birth, preterm birth, and absence of skin-to-skin contact at birth. The model showed strong discriminative power (AUC 0.75) and reasonable calibration (calibration slope 1.37; calibration belt 0.536-0.727).Conclusion\n\nWe developed a promising tool for identifying infants at increased risk of neurodevelopmental delay in low-resource settings, which could help prioritize children for follow-up and specialized interventions.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Community and Public Health, Busitema University, Mbale, Uganda.",
    "Department of Research, Nikao Medical Center, Kampala, Uganda.",
    "Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda.",
    "Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.",
    "Center for Internation Health, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.",
    "Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Busitema University Faculty of Health Sciences, Mbale, Uganda.",
    "Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda.",
    "Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda.",
    "Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Juba, Juba, South Sudan.",
    "Department of Research, Makerere University Hospital, Kampala, Uganda.",
    "Department of Nursing, School of Medicine, Kabale University, Kabale, Uganda.",
    "Division of Computational and Data Science, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.",
    "Centre for Intervention Science and Maternal Child Health (CISMAC), Centre for International Health, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.",
    "Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda.",
    "Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Kabale University, Kabale, Uganda."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 14,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "David Mukunya",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3892-9777"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Grace Ndeezi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Gertrude Namazzi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Thorkild Tylleskär",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4801-4324"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Brendah Nambozo",
      "orcid": "0009-0002-8600-8654"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Milton W Musaba"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Beatrice Odongkara"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "Vincentina Achora"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8
      ],
      "name": "Justin Bruno Tongun"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9
      ],
      "name": "Josephine Tumuhamye",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5451-6406"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        10
      ],
      "name": "Agnes Napyo",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4333-3588"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        11
      ],
      "name": "Vicent Ssentumbwe"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        12,
        13
      ],
      "name": "Victoria Nankabirwa"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        14
      ],
      "name": "James K Tumwine"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/724d9zv06w8p0.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1080/16549716.2026.2748101",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13674651",
  "id": "724d9zv06w8p0",
  "issns": [
    "1654-9716",
    "1654-9880"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42876325",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2735|Infant Development and Preterm Care"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7222337422",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13674651?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13674651",
  "pmid": "42876325",
  "published": "2026-10-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/724d9zv06w8p0.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:46Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42876325",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42876325"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2735|Infant Development and Preterm Care",
      "subfield": "reproductive-child"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Predicting neurodevelopmental delay among two-year-old infants in Northern Uganda.",
  "title_text": "Predicting neurodevelopmental delay among two-year-old infants in Northern Uganda.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:46Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/724d9zv06w8p0",
  "venue": "Global health action",
  "versions": []
}