The prevalence of suspected Global Developmental Delay and its associated factors among children seen at the Paediatric Neurology Outpatient Clinic of Saint Paul’s Hospital, Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, April 2021 to April 2022, an Institution based Cross sectional study.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Global developmental delay (GDD) is defined as a delay in two or more developmental domains (gross motor/fine motor, cognitive, speech/language, personal/social, activities of daily living) in young children less than 5 years of age. About 52.9 million (8.4%) children worldwide have developmental disabilities. Children with global developmental delay are at higher risk of learning difficulties, behavioural problems and functional impairments later in life. This study attempts to describe the prevalence and associated factors of suspected Global developmental delay among children visiting SPHMMC. Objectives To determine the prevalence and associated factors of suspected Global Developmental Delay among children visiting the Pediatric Neurology Outpatient clinic from Apr 2021 to Apr 2022 at SPHMMC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on patients visiting the Pediatric Neurology OPD over 1 year ( Apr 2021 to Apr 2022). The study population was randomly selected patients visiting the Pediatric Neurology OPD over the study period. Two hundred and fifty patients were evaluated. Data was collected using a structured checklist by health professionals from charts. Once the data was collected, it was entered and analysed by SPSS version 25 software. Logistic regression analysis was utilized. In all analysis, predictor variables with a P-value of <0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Relationship between independent and dependent variables was assessed and presented using odd’s ratio and confidence intervals. Ethical clearance was secured from the ethical review board and the School of Public Health. Result- Among the 250 study subjects, 54(21.6%) of them had Global Developmental Delay of which 24(44.4%) were males and 30(55.6%) females. Global developmental Delay had significant associations with perinatal asphyxia and abnormal brain MRI finding. Conclusion- Magnitude of Global Developmental Delay in this study was high. Perinatal asphyxia and abnormal brain MRI finding were found to be independent predictors of Global Developmental Delay. Key terms- Global Developmental Delay, Prevalence, Perinatal asphyxia