Severe functional difficulties and disabilities in children and adolescents and the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Objective. To report prevalence of severe child functional difficulties and disability (CFD) in a nationally representative sample of 2 to 17 year-old children in Mexico and describe the inequities faced by children with CFD in relation to a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-related outcomes. Materials and methods. Using data from the National Survey of Children and Women (ENIM 2015) we estimate prevalence with 95% confidence intervals for the selected indicators. We use chi-square test and confidence intervals inspection to report significant differences between children with and without CFD. Results. 8% of children present at least one CFD. CFD is associated with higher prevalence of underweight and child labor and lower prevalence of adequate early child development. Conclusion. Children with CFD present worst outcomes and require targeted efforts to ensure they meet health and wellbeing targets in the frame of the SDGs.

The exposure of children with and without disabilities to violent parental discipline: Cross-sectional surveys in 17 middle- and low-income countries

“…In addition to the Hendricks et al study, a study, based on the Mexican implementation of UNICEF's MICS, which piloted a new measure of child disabilities developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics for UNICEF and which was subsequently included in the current round of MICS (MICS6), among 16,617 children, reported no difference between children with/without disabilities regarding exposure to 'violent discipline'; a measure used in MICS for reporting of exposure to any of eight forms of discipline that involved either psychological aggression or physical violence in the last month (de Castro, Hubert, Strand, Prado, & Braverman, 2017). The omission of data from middle-and lowincome countries is clearly problematic given that the prevalence of some common forms of violence, including violent parental discipline, are more common in the world's poorer countries (Cuartas et al, 2019).…”

The impact of maternal health care utilisation on routine immunisation coverage of children in Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

“…Developing countries, especially sub-Saharan African countries, where the rate of neonatal and under-five mortality is disproportionately high have been urged by the United Nations to put in place measures that will reduce neonatal mortality rate to about 12/1000 live births and under-five mortality to about 25/1000 live births by 2030 1–3. Much of neonatal and under-five mortality in sub-Saharan African countries is attributable to childhood diseases which can be prevented by immunisation 2.…”

“…Much of neonatal and under-five mortality in sub-Saharan African countries is attributable to childhood diseases which can be prevented by immunisation 2. Immunisation is a very efficient and cost-effective public health intervention which prevents about 2.5 million childhood mortality per year and it is considered one of the main cost-effective interventions that can be used to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2—to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under-five by 2030 1 4–7…”

Child labor and severe functioning difficulties and disability in Mexican children and adolescents 5-17 years of age

“…18 Socio-economic status was divided into three categories -low, middle and high; greater detail about the wealth index this was based on can be consulted elsewhere in this issue. 19 Educational lag assesses the progress of a student in the school system calculating schooling-for-age. We estimated years of completed schooling and we calculated the difference between schooling-for-age with the child's actual age, and the normal age in a given grade (year in school).…”