Developmental delay among children under two years of age in slums of Burdwan Municipality: A cross-sectional study

Context:

Development is an ongoing process through which an individual acquires competence to function adequately. Developmental delay is said to occur when a child fails to reach the age-appropriate anticipated milestones. This imparts long-term direct as well as indirect effects on the health of a community obviating routine measurement of its prevalence especially in high-risk populations.

Aim:

To find out the prevalence and correlates of developmental delay among children under two years of age in slums of Burdwan Municipality, West Bengal.

Settings and Design:

A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study.

Methods and Materials:

This study was conducted between September-November 2019 among 240 study subjects selected by multistage simple random sampling. Data were collected by interviewing the respondents using a predesigned, pretested schedule. Developmental status was assessed by applying Trivandrum Developmental Screening Chart (TDSC). Chi-square test and logistic regression was done to find associations.

Results:

Prevalence of developmental delay was 6.6%(95%CI 3.6-9.8) and proportion was more among male infants. Chi square test revealed gender (p = 0.03), mothers' education (p = 0.00), socio-economic status (p = 0.00), parity (p = 0.02), birth spacing (p = 0.01) birth weight (p = 0.00) to be significantly associated with developmental delay and multivariable analysis showed all the factors to be significant predictors except gender, parity and birth spacing. Gestational duration, maternal age at delivery, mode of delivery was not found to be significantly associated with developmental delay.

Conclusion:

Developmental delay is considerably high in the study area. A larger study using appropriate tool and follow-up may elicit the burden and associated determinants.