BackgroundParental concerns about their children’s development can be used as an indicator of developmental risk. We undertook a systematic review of the prevalence of parents’ concerns as an indicator of developmental risk, measured by the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) and associated risk factors.MethodsElectronic databases, bibliographies and websites were searched and experts contacted. Studies were screened for eligibility and study characteristics were extracted independently by two authors. A summary estimate for prevalence was derived. Meta-regression examined the impact of study characteristics and quality. Meta-analysis was used to derive pooled estimates of the impact of biological and psychosocial risk factors on the odds of parental concerns indicating high developmental risk.ResultsThirty seven studies were identified with a total of 210,242 subjects. Overall 13.8% (95% CI 10.9 -16.8%) of parents had concerns indicating their child was at high developmental risk and 19.8% (95% CI 16.7-22.9%) had concerns indicating their child was at moderate developmental risk. Male gender, low birth weight, poor/fair child health rating, poor maternal mental health, lower socioeconomic status (SES), minority ethnicity, not being read to, a lack of access to health care and not having health insurance were significantly associated with parental concerns indicating a high developmental risk.ConclusionsThe prevalence of parental concerns measured with the PEDS indicating developmental risk is substantial. There is increased prevalence associated with biological and psychosocial adversity.Trial registrationPROSPERO Registration: CRD42012003215.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2431-14-231) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

ObjectiveTo determine the association of socioeconomic disadvantage with the prevalence of childhood disabling chronic conditions in high-income countries.Study designSystematic review and meta-analyses.Data sources6 electronic databases, relevant websites, reference lists and experts in the field.Study selection160 observational studies conducted in high-income countries with data on socioeconomic status and disabling chronic conditions in childhood, published between 1 January 1991 and 31 December 2013.Data extraction and synthesisAbstracts were reviewed, full papers obtained, and papers identified for inclusion by 2 independent reviewers. Inclusion decisions were checked by a third reviewer. Where reported, ORs were extracted for low versus high socioeconomic status. For studies reporting raw data but not ORs, ORs were calculated. Narrative analysis was undertaken for studies without data suitable for meta-analysis.Results126 studies had data suitable for meta-analysis. ORs for risk estimates were: all-cause disabling chronic conditions 1.72 (95% CI 1.48 to 2.01); psychological disorders 1.88 (95% CI 1.68 to 2.10); intellectual disability 2.41 (95% CI 2.03 to 2.86); activity-limiting asthma 2.20 (95% CI 1.87 to 2.85); cerebral palsy 1.42 (95% CI 1.26 to 1.61); congenital abnormalities 1.41 (95% CI 1.24 to 1.61); epilepsy 1.38 (95% CI 1.20 to 1.59); sensory impairment 1.70 (95% CI 1.39 to 2.07). Heterogeneity was high across most estimates (I2>75%). Of the 34 studies without data suitable for meta-analysis, 26 reported results consistent with increased risk associated with low socioeconomic status.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that, in high-income countries, childhood disabling chronic conditions are associated with social disadvantage. Although evidence of an association is consistent across different countries, the review provides limited evidence to explain the association; future research, using longitudinal data, will be required to distinguish low socioeconomic status as the cause or consequence of childhood disabling chronic conditions and the aetiological pathways and mechanisms.

Aims: To study the relation between risk of cerebral palsy and socioeconomic status. Methods: A total of 293 children with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy out of 105 760 live births between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 1997 were identified from the special conditions sub-file of the West Sussex Computerised Child Health System. Results: There was a linear association between risk of cerebral palsy and socioeconomic status (SES) measured by the Registrar General's social class (RGSC) and enumeration district (ED) ranked into quintiles by the Townsend Deprivation Index derived from 1991 census data. Fifty one per cent and 30% of cases of cerebral palsy were statistically ''attributable'' to inequality in SES using the RGSC and ED quintile respectively. A linear association was also noted for singleton live births. The association between risk of cerebral palsy and ED quintile persisted in a logistic regression model that included birth weight and gestational age, although that between RGSC and cerebral palsy no longer reached conventional levels of statistical significance after adjustment. Conclusions: A strong association was observed between socioeconomic status and the risk of cerebral palsy, which was only partly accounted for by the known social gradients in birth weight and gestational age.T he negative impact of socioeconomic deprivation has been shown for many aspects of child mortality and morbidity.1-3 The relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and the risk of cerebral palsy is not clear. An observed association between SES and cerebral palsy might suggest aetiological factors and pathways to prevention as well as being important in the planning of services and the allocation of resources.Low birth weight and prematurity are the strongest risk factors for cerebral palsy. 4 Given the observed association between these factors and SES, 5-7 an increased prevalence of cerebral palsy with low SES is expected. However, studies have produced conflicting results. Table 1 summarises the results of studies conducted in developed countries. In developing countries, there is a higher proportion of children with postnatally acquired cerebral palsy with a more clearly established socioeconomic gradient.West Sussex has a population of 750 000 with roughly 8000 births per year. Compared with national figures, fewer belong to ethnic minority groups and there is a lower rate of unemployment. However, there is a wide variation in SES with areas of deprivation. 8In the present study, population based, routinely collected data from West Sussex are used to: N Examine the relation between the prevalence of cerebral palsy and SES and between SES and the type and severity of cerebral palsy N Examine the degree to which any relation between SES and the prevalence of cerebral palsy is mediated by socioeconomic differences in birth weight and gestation.

Modern transformational grammarians, using only their own intuitions as the basic data for rule construction, may not be analyzing the common, natural language of the speech community. Do native speakers share the intuitions of linguists? One hundred and fifty exemplar sentences from 6 linguists' articles were presented to 43 linguistically naive and 22 linguistically nonnaive native speakers. Native speakers agreed among themselves as to the acceptability or unacceptability of 80% of the sentences. Subjects shared intuitions with linguists in only a half of the exemplars. It is suggested that linguists consult nonlinguists as to the acceptability of exemplars, which illustrate the rules proposed, as a check that those rules reflect the formal structure of the common language being described.

BackgroundThe majority of children with disability live in low and middle income (LAMI) countries. Although a number of important reviews of childhood disability in LAMI countries have been published, these have not, to our knowledge, addressed the association between childhood disability and the home socio-economic circumstances (SEC). The objective of this study is to establish the current state of knowledge on the SECs of children with disability and their households in LAMI countries through a systematic review and quality assessment of existing research.MethodsElectronic databases (MEDLINE; EMBASE; PUBMED; Web of Knowledge; PsycInfo; ASSIA; Virtual Health Library; POPLINE; Google scholar) were searched using terms specific to childhood disability and SECs in LAMI countries. Publications from organisations including the World Bank, UNICEF, International Monetary Fund were searched for. Primary studies and reviews from 1990 onwards were included. Studies were assessed for inclusion, categorisation and quality by 2 researchers.Results24 primary studies and 13 reviews were identified. Evidence from the available literature on the association between childhood disability and SECs was inconsistent and inconclusive. Potential mechanisms by which poverty and low household SEC may be both a cause and consequence of disability are outlined in the reviews and the qualitative studies. The association of poor SECs with learning disability and behaviour problems was the most consistent finding and these studies had low/medium risk of bias. Where overall disability was the outcome of interest, findings were divergent and many studies had a high/medium risk of bias. Qualitative studies were methodologically weak.ConclusionsThis review indicates that, despite socially and biologically plausible mechanisms underlying the association of low household SEC with childhood disability in LAMI countries, the empirical evidence from quantitative studies is inconsistent and contradictory. There is evidence for a bidirectional association of low household SEC and disability and longitudinal data is needed to clarify the nature of this association.