ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To explore the prevalence of vision, mental, audibility, language, psychiatry, extremity, and influence factors in the 0 - 7 year olds. METHODS: A total number of 77,727 0 - 7 year old children living in Shenzhen city were tested with tree phase screening under the Chinese standard of evaluation in disabilities. RESULTS: The prevalence of all disabilities was 5.59 per thousand (adjusted rate was 8.49 per thousand with a false negative of 3.1 per thousand ). The prevalence of mental disease was the highest (1.88 per thousand, with adjusted rate 3.43 per thousand ), the prevalence of language disability was 1.88 per thousand (including retarded language development, with adjusted rate 3.43 per thousand ). The prevalence rates of psychiatry, extremity and audibility disability were 1.59 per thousand, 1.56 per thousand, 1.11 per thousand respectively with of vision the lowest (0.37 per thousand ). The prevalence of all disabilities, audibility, language and mental was on the increase with age. The difference was statistically significant. Among all different age groups regarding psychiatric disease, the highest fell in the 2 - 4 year olds. The prevalence of extremity was not statistically different among age groups. The suspected agents of disease which occurred before or during pregnancy took up 45.7%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of six kinds disabilities in Shenzhen was about 10 per thousand lower than that of the samples of the nation in 1989, but two times higher than that of similar studies in Japan. The prevalence rates of language and psychiatric disease were higher than that of the nation in 1989. The causation should be further studied.
