ABSTRACT
The purpose of the study is to describe the characteristics of the disabled in institutionalized care in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. All institutions for the disabled in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A structured questionnaire was completed on each disabled subject by health officials responsible for their care in a cross-sectional study. The health officials under the supervision of the physicians in the Ministry of Social Affairs, obtained additional information from the health records of either the parents or the care providers of the disabled The major items of information were the demography, family history and types of physical disability or associated diseases of the subjects. Information was available on a total of 2,275 subjects of which 61.7% were males and 38.7% were females. Seventy percent were below the age of 20 years. Nearly all subjects [99.2%] were either unemployed or unemployable. The majority of subjects had a combination of disability of which dumbness [63.8%] and cerebral palsy [51.6%] were the main diagnosis while epilepsy was the most common disease. Motor disability included quadriparesis [29.3%], paraplegia [8.6%], hemiplegia [4.2%] and monoplegia [3.2%]. The major factors associated with these disabilities were incomplete immunization, previous infections and perinatal problems. The findings showed a high frequency of children and young adults in institutionalized care with low employment potential. The frequency of disabilities can be reduced if efforts are directed towards factors associated with occurrences of dumbness and cerebral palsy which can be associated with epilepsy and other disabilities