Epidemiological Study of Childhood Disability
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PAKISTAN
A. INTRODUCTION
1. The purpose of the Pilot Study
2. Description of the Pilot Study Site
3. Description of the Interviewers
4. Description of Interviewer Training
B. PROCEDURES OF THE PILOT STUDY
1. Description of house to house survey
2. Description of Professional Review
C. EVALUATION OF METHODOLOGY
D. RESULTS
E. REHABILITATION
F. CONCLUSIONS
G. ANNEXURE –A (Household Form)
H. ANNEXURE –B (Ten Question Screen)
I. ANNEXURE C (CDQ ---- Child Disability Questionnaire)
J. LIST OF TABLES
1 Distribution of four levels of living standards and total number of households visited with number of refusals
2 Cross classification of age by sex for the total population of children surveyed
3(a) Cross classification of age by disability status on TQS for 3-6 year olds
3(b) Cross classification of age by disability status on CDQ for 3-6 year olds
4(a) Cross classification of age by disability status on the Ten Questions for the older (7-9) year olds
4(b) Cross classification of age by disability status on CDQ for the older (7-9) year olds
4(c) Estimate of the Number of Positives on the CDQ for the older 7-9 years old Children
5 Positive results on the Questionnaires (Ten Questions and two age groups.
6 Validity of the Questionnaires
7(a) A Distribution By Age and Sex of younger (3-6 year old) children with problems on TQS
7(b) Distribution by age and sex of older (7-9) year old children with problems on TQS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The present effort could not have materialized without the active assistance from UNICEF and my thanks are due to Mr. Hasanoputro, Program Officer for UNICEF Representative and Mr. Fida Hussain, Assistant Program Officer for UNICEF Representative. The Planning and Development Department, Government of Punjab provided the much needed support and I am especially thankful to Mr. Ghulam Qadir, Chief ECA, Planning and Development Department, Government of Punjab. Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Punjab has helped me through the nightmarish tasks of making various arrangements for the interviewers.
I am grateful to all my staff from Child and Family Psychiatry Unit who have given as much of their time as the task demanded without a flicker on their brow. My special thanks are due to Mr. Mohammad Saeed, our Office Superintendent who has painstakingly typed and re-typed the various forms and reports. Last but not the least I would like to thank Mr. Sabir Hussain, our ‘all chores’ man who has been kept busy all the time running for forms and photo states and other additional jobs which nobody wants to do.
FORWARD
The growth of services for handicapped children in Pakistan is, to say the least, rather slow. The slowness is understandable if one looks at the innumerable problems facing the country for example, poverty, malnutrition, high infant mortality, low literacy rate and so on.
Although since the last decade or so there has been an increasing awareness amongst professionals for the urgent need for planning adequate services for the handicapped, the declaration of the International Year of the Disabled, focused public attention as well and there has been an increasing demand for the provision of better services.
In order to provide adequate services one has to identify the problems and their magnitude, and only then a realistic planning is possible. For this purpose the Child and Family Psychiatry Unit, King Edward Medical College, Lahore, with assistance form UNICEF and the Government of Punjab. Planned a survey of the prevalence of disabilities in children in Punjab, as part of a comprehensive plan to assess the situation in the province.
The first phase of the survey was planned for the urban population of Lahore and later it was proposed to go into two districts of Punjab. A Questionnaire was specially designed for this purpose. However, a chance occurrence brought me in contact with Dr. Lillian Belmont, from Gertrude H. Sergievsky Centre organizing an International Epidemiological Study of Childhood Disability in collaboration with Bishop Bekkers Foundations, International Workshops, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Rehabilitation International UNICEF Technical Support Program. It was then decided to link our project with the above mentioned study being carried out in nine other countries as well. For this purpose it was decided to adapt the same Questionnaire which was already being used in other countries participating in the study.
The present report I based on the data collected on 1025 children as stipulated in the Procedure Manual of the pilot Study, but it is further planned to carry out the survey on another 4000 households and shape the data into a final comprehensive report.
An effort is made in this report, not only to present statistical data but also to bring to light certain factor and attitudes which contribute towards the causation and perpetuation of severe disability in children and to find appropriate solutions; for it is a problem which will not go away by just looking the other way.
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