Commentary: the epidemiology of neurodevelopmental disorders in Sub-Saharan Africa--moving forward to understand the health and psychosocial needs of children, families, and communities.
Commentary: the epidemiology of neurodevelopmental disorders in Sub-Saharan Africa--moving forward to understand the health and psychosocial needs of children, families, and communities.
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评论：撒哈拉以南非洲神经发育障碍的流行病学——进一步了解儿童、家庭和社区的健康和心理社会需求。
DOI：
10.1093/ije/dyl090
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发表时间：
2006
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Davidson,LeslieL
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kauchali,Shuaib;Davidson,LeslieL
Developmental disabilities have always been an important but largely yet to be addressed public health problem for children in developing countries. 1, 2 Until recently, premature birth, vaccine preventable childhood illnesses, bacterial and acute viral infections, parasitic infestations, toxic exposures, nutritional deficiencies, and injuries have accounted for the vast majority of infant and childhood mortality; childhood disability was barely ever measured. Addressing neurodevelopmental disabilities has become increasingly important with the decrease in infant mortality seen in recent decades. Disability in children can lead to lower health status and also increase the risk of death resulting from a range of potential mechanisms; children with developmental disabilities may be less likely to receive appropriate preventive and therapeutic health interventions. 3 Such children may also have difficulty maintaining an adequate nutritional balance for health and growth even in the face of an adequate food supply; many live in poverty where even access to food is not certain. In addition, children with disability are often denied access to appropriate schooling or the acquisition of skills to sustain employment as adults.While many causes of developmental disability in children in developing countries are identical to those in developed countries, there are risk factors, like HIV, which now have an impact primarily in developing countries. Some of these are preventable at low cost. 1 Others will require substantial social transformation; for example, in Bangladesh and Pakistan, maternal literacy and landlessness predicted mental retardation in children. 4, 5 Today HIV/AIDS has emerged as the leading cause of disability in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). 6 Finally, HIV, a major challenge to survival itself, is highly prevalent in SSA among adults with children. It has recently become clear that a proportion of children infected with HIV are surviving to school age. 7 Thus many children with developmental disabilities live with parents who are ill or have become orphans because their
