Mild intellectual disability in children in Lahore, Pakistan: Aetiology and risk factors

Abstract

The present study indicates a clear relationship of mild ID with prenatal and postnatal malnutrition and social deprivation. Two independent variables, maternal illiteracy and small head circumference at birth, showed a clear association with the development of mild mental disability among children in the study population.

Intellectual Disability in a Birth Cohort: Prevalence, Etiology, and Determinants at the Age of 4 Years

“…Potential neonatal sequelae corresponds to about 13% of ID, which is less frequent than in LMICs cohorts, and perhaps it could be attributable to a high antenatal care attendance, including seven or more visits. Different from those studies in LMICs [22,23], even considering genetic causes, consanguinity is not an important risk factor for ID in this population, since there were no consanguineous marriages in our cohort.…”

“…Similarly to our research, a birth cohort study conducted in the UK evaluated ID presence at 7 years of age and found a prevalence of 2.4% [20]. However, other population-based studies have reported a higher prevalence [21,22,23]. …”

“…Down syndrome was a common genetic diagnosis as seen in other cohorts [22,23], and other chromosomal abnormalities and pathogenic copy number variation have been identified as a cause of ID, as found in other studies, which is indicating the need for performing cytogenetic studies, especially chromosomal microarrays [2,3]. The studied children were largely investigated but some experiments, such as exome sequencing, were not available at the time of the research, and they will be analyzed in future follow-up in this cohort.…”

Development of a 12month screener based on items from the Bayley II Scales of Infant Development for use in Low Middle Income countries

“…Another study conducted in Pakistan found that almost 7% of 6-10 year-old children assessed met criteria for mild Intellectual Disability. In addition, 20% of children assessed had some form of delay (e.g., speech/language, hearing difficulty, motor delays, vision problems, or learning disorders [6]). Rates of delays and Intellectual Disabilities vary by country in Africa; however, estimates of Intellectual Disability in Zambia are approximately 3.5% [5].…”

Counting Children With Disability in Low-Income Countries: Enhancing Prevention, Promoting Child Development, and Investing in Economic Well-being

“…In this context, it is critically important to understand rural and urban roles whereby other etiologies of intellectual disability are recognized. 24 Sixth, there is increasing recognition of having cooperation and systems integration between health, social, and educational systems. [25][26][27][28] It is in this context that interventions such as providing safe water, preventing burns and unintentional injuries, preventing food insecurity, and promoting parents and communities as teachers can be used as opportunities to implement systematic developmental surveillance and early childhood supports.…”