Bangladesh University of Professionals, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Department of Social Relations, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
PLoS One. 2021 Nov 4;16(11):e0259532. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259532. eCollection 2021.
Early childhood is a vital part of human life because most of the brain developments occur in this particular period. Early childhood disability is a significant global public health burden, which can negatively impact the children's quality of life and their overall productivity. It is also a major social and economic problem in Bangladesh. Therefore, it is very important to understand the associated factors for early childhood disability, which may help disability prevention, better management and policy formulation. The main objective of this study is to investigate the child, family, and community-level factors associated with early childhood disability in Bangladesh.
A cross sectional nationally representative data was derived from Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), 2019. A total of 14,072 Bangladeshi children under five years of age were selected for this study. Various types of statistical analysis (simple, bivariate, multivariable) were performed. To assess the bivariate relationship between chosen categorical variables (independent) and early childhood disability (dependent), a chi-square test was used. The multivariable ordinal logistic regression was used to find out the association of disability with child, family, and community-level factors.
The results show that 2.0% of the children have at least one disability and 0.8% have more disabilities. Several factors namely not attending in early childhood education [Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.65; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.13-1.17 Ρ = 0.01], having mother's functional difficulty (OR = 1.23; 95% (CI) = 0.58-1.88 Ρ <0.001), unhappy mother's life (OR = 0.85; 95% CI = 0.30-1.39 Ρ <0.001), parents without internet access (OR = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.06-1.29 Ρ = 0.03) and parents using mobile phone (OR = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.09-0.95 Ρ = 0.02) were found to be important for early childhood disability in Bangladesh.
Early childhood disability is still neglected in Bangladesh and further epidemiological studies are recommended. The findings of this study may help policy makers and relevant stakeholders to develop interventions for reducing the overall burden of early childhood disability.
儿童早期是人类生命中至关重要的一部分，因为大脑的大部分发育都发生在这个特定的时期。儿童早期残疾是一个重大的全球公共卫生负担，会对儿童的生活质量和整体生产力产生负面影响。它也是孟加拉国的一个主要社会和经济问题。因此，了解儿童早期残疾的相关因素非常重要，这可能有助于预防残疾、更好地管理和制定政策。本研究的主要目的是调查与孟加拉国儿童早期残疾相关的儿童、家庭和社区层面的因素。
本研究采用了来自 2019 年多指标类集调查（MICS）的横断面全国代表性数据。共有 14072 名 5 岁以下的孟加拉国儿童被选入本研究。进行了各种类型的统计分析（简单、双变量、多变量）。为了评估所选分类变量（自变量）与儿童早期残疾（因变量）之间的双变量关系，使用了卡方检验。多变量有序逻辑回归用于发现残疾与儿童、家庭和社区层面因素的关联。
结果显示，2.0%的儿童至少有一种残疾，0.8%的儿童有多种残疾。一些因素，如未参加幼儿教育（优势比[OR] = 0.65；95%置信区间[CI] = 0.13-1.17，P = 0.01）、母亲有功能障碍（OR = 1.23；95%CI = 0.58-1.88，P <0.001）、母亲生活不愉快（OR = 0.85；95%CI = 0.30-1.39，P <0.001）、父母无网络接入（OR = 0.68；95%CI = 0.06-1.29，P = 0.03）和父母使用手机（OR = 0.52；95%CI = 0.09-0.95，P = 0.02）与孟加拉国儿童早期残疾有关。
儿童早期残疾在孟加拉国仍被忽视，建议进一步开展流行病学研究。本研究的结果可能有助于政策制定者和相关利益相关者制定干预措施，以减轻儿童早期残疾的总体负担。
