Prevalence of intellectual disability and concurrent impairments among Chinese children,1987-2006

Objective To analyze the prevalence and distribution of intellectual disability (ID) and association of ID with other disabilities among children in China.Methods Data on disabilities among children aged 0-17 years were derived from two waves of National Sample Survey on Disability in China in 1987 and 2006.Logistic regression was utilized to explore the prevalence and severity of ID and their relationships with other disabilities.Results While age-standardized prevalence rate of isolated ID among Chinese children decreased by 69.21%,from 17.70/1 000 in 1987 to 5.45/1 000 in 2006,the prevalence of multiple ID increased from 2.57/1 000 in 1987 to 3.61/1 000 in 2006.Among the children with multiple ID,hearing and speech disabilities were the most prevalent disability,followed by limb,visual and mental disabilities during the 10-year period.After adjusting for confounding factors,the children with hearing and speech,limb,visual,and mental disability were at 11.03,17.65,13.46,and 46.53 times of risk of suffering from ID compared to the children without those disabilities in 1987 and the risks further increased to 19.22,99.19,32.17,and 119.72 times in 2006,respectively.Compared with the children with isolated ID,the adjusted odds ratio of the severe ID were 7.10,4.57,3.81,and 3.39 in 1987 and 4.30,2.85,2.74,and 2.27 in 2006,respectively,for the children with ID and concurrent mental,hearing and speech,limb,and visual impairment.Conclusion In China,ID is more prevalent and more severe among the children with other disabilities than among the children without any disability.Though the proportions of hearing and speech impairments are higher,the proportion of mental impairment is relatively lower and the impairments exert a heavy impact on the severity of ID among the children with the disease.Whereas,limb and visual disability exert a mild influence on ID despite the higher proportion of limb disability and lower proportion of visual disability among the Chinese children with ID.