(P24-006-24) Feasibility and Test-retest Reliability of a Novel Interactive iPad Based Task to Measure Impulse Control as a Nutrition Related Outcome in Northern Ghana

Objectives: Interactive tablet-based assessments may be an efficient method for child development assessments, but experience with these methods in low-resource contexts is limited. We examined feasibility and reliability of the Early Years Toolbox (EYT) Go/No-go (GNGT) iPad task to measure impulse control among children in a nutrition trial.

Methods: Children 2-5 y (n=690) were recruited from 14 rural/peri-urban and 14 urban clusters in northern Ghana for the CoMIT Project (NCT05178407). Following demographic data collection, children completed the EYT GNGT. In the task, children are presented with stimuli (fish and sharks) and instructed to press the fish (go-trial) and resist pressing the sharks (no-go trial). All GNGT assessments were administered offline. Go accuracy (total correct go-trials /total go-trials), no-go accuracy (total no-go trials correct/total no-go trials) and impulse control score (go-accuracy x no-go accuracy) were calculated. Implausible trials and blocks of trials (25 trials/block) were removed according to EYT guidelines. To assess test-retest reliability, a convenience sample of 30 children (10 per age group, 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5 y) attempted the GNGT a second time one week after their first assessment. We calculated the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the go accuracy, no-go accuracy, and impulse control score.

Results: Many children resided in a household with no touchscreen devices (42%). Of 682 participants, 5 children ( < 1%) refused to attempt the GNGT. The task took children an average of 3 minutes to complete. Data cleaning resulted in removal of 4.6% of all trials, 7.0% of all blocks, and 3 children ( < 1%) had all blocks removed. Impulse control scores were normally distributed with no floor or ceiling effect. The ICC was fair (0.4-0.75) for go-accuracy (0.55), no-go accuracy (0.46) and impulse control score (0.53).

Conclusions: The EYT GNGT is a feasible and reliable assessment of impulse control among children in Northern Ghana. Further assessment of the construct validity of the EYT GNGT is needed in this context.

Funding Sources: Funded by a grant from Helen Keller International through support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.