Prevalence of Childhood Developmental Delay in Child under 5 Years Old Living in Ulaanbaatar

Author(s): Narantuya B, Chimedsuren O and Lkhagvasuren Ts

The Background: Children’s development and childhood disability are a public health priority due to their consequences affecting quality of life and productivity not only of the affected children but also of the families and populations as a whole. WHO and the World Bank estimate that more than a billion people live with some form of disability, which equates to approximately 15% of the world’s population. Citing the Global Burden of Disease study of 2004, the World Report further estimates that amongst those aged 0–14 years, roughly 5.1% of all children (93 million) live with a ‘moderate or severe’ disability and 0.7%, or 13 million children live with severe difficulties. Many children younger than 5 years in developing countries are exposed to multiple risks, including poverty, malnutrition, poor health, and other risks, which affect their cognitive, motor, and social emotional development. There are a few researches and national statistics on the childhood delay and disabilities of under 5 years children in Mongolia.

Objective: The main objective of the study was to screen childhood developmental delay under 5 years children in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Methods: Ten questions screening method was used in order to detect developmental delay in children of chosen age in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Results: A total of 1971 (25.8 percent) of the 7908 children surveyed had positive screening results on the Ten Questions instrument and 5937 of those children screening negatively. By age group 9 months 16.7 percent, 18-month-old 16.03%, 2 years old (17.4%) 3 years old 1255 (15.87%), 4 years old 1303 (16.47%) and 5 years old, 17.5 percent revealed positive results. By types of delays there were 8% motor delay, 8.2% hearing, 4.2% vision, 7.7% cognitive delay and 10.5% speech and language. The developmental del