COMMUNITY SCREENING, RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF CHILDHOOD DISABILITIES

Hemidah SA1, Sami SM1, Salama II1, El Rafie M2, El Sherbini E2

1 National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

2 Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

 

Objective: To assess the prevalence of and to identify the risk factors associated with childhood disability in a low socioeconomic area of Cairo governorate.

Methods: One thousand children aged 2-12 years were screened using the Ten Point Questionnaire (TPQ) to pick up the suspected disabilities. Children screened positive 

were medically assessed by specific diagnostic tests. Data were statistically analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis

Results: The prevalence of disabilities was found to be 9.2%. The most common disabilities were hearing (43.5%), mental (24.3%) and visual (17.4%) disabilities. Hearing and mental disabilities were found to be significantly (P<0.01) higher among low birth weight children. Parental consanguinity (P<0.01), maternal education (P<0.01) and maternal working (P<0.05) were the relevant social risk factors for childhood disabilities. Significant antenatal risk factors were hypertension and bleeding during pregnancy while the child related risk factors comprised neonatal troubles, major childhood accidents and uncompleted obligatory vaccination. Multivariate logistic analysis showed that consanguinity, maternal education, bleeding during pregnancy, major accidents and uncompleted obligatory vaccination were the predictable variables for the presence of disability with adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) ranged from 5.8-86.3. The significant psychological impacts of disability were problems in dealing with others (OR 18.6) and nocturnal enuresis (OR 14.3). Out of school-aged children with disability 5.5% attended special schools and 3.5% dropped out of ordinary schools.

Conclusion: Ten Point Questionnaire revealed high positive predictive value, thus they could be recommended for valid detection of disability on community basis. A good surveillance system and a comprehensive integrated program are recommended for the welfare o f disabled children.

 

 
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