Childhood disability levels in a village in upper egypt

Abstract EN

Long term physical disability among children and adolescents is a multi-dimensional problem i though the prevalence rate of disability across age groups is higher among elderly, yet, the eerily of disability and psychological impacts among adolescents and young adults is much higher.

Idler < 18 years of age are more than 50 % of the population in developing countries, even low ability levels can amount to substantial suffering.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of ability among children <18 years age in a village in Upper Egypt, its impact on the child and nily life, and describe the patterns of health care seeking behavior.

Methodology: A cross-sectional vey with total coverage of all children 0-18 years old residing in Gahdam village, Upper Egypt was iertaken in 2001.

A child was considered disabled if he / she was suffering from a disability in one more of general activities specific for his / her age or specific activities general for all age groups.

) theirs of 3,448 children were interviewed via a semi-structured questionnaire in the screening years '10 questions questionnaire' standardized instrument.

A sub-sample of the disabled children's others was subjected to a more detailed questionnaire on disability.

Results : 340 children (9.9 %) re perceived by their mothers limited by anyway because their disability or health.

General ability was the most frequently reported type followed by speech disabilities.

Disability was higher magnitude and severity in males.

Psychological burden among children's families ranked the first >.

7 %) followed by economic burden, (31.4%) and lastly 15.7% of disabled children's families were firing from physical effort' burden.

The type of disability, course and economic burden were all cant predictors in seeking health care.

Conclusion : Development screening is essential for identification of childhood disability.