Prevalence and socio-economic determinants of growth and developmental delays among Iranian children aged under five years: a cross sectional study

Alijanzadeh, M., RajabiMajd, N., RezaeiNiaraki, M., Griffiths, M.D. ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524 and Alimoradi, Z., 2024. Prevalence and socio-economic determinants of growth and developmental delays among Iranian children aged under five years: a cross sectional study. BMC Pediatrics, 24: 412. ISSN 1471-2431

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Abstract

Background: The main cause of growth and development delays remains unknown, but it can occur as an interaction between genetic, environmental, and socio-economic factors.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence and social determinants of growth and developmental delays among children aged under five years in Qazvin, Iran.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between January 2019 to December 2020 with participation of 1800 mothers with children aged 4–60 months who were referred to comprehensive health centers in Qazvin city, Iran. Structural and intermediate social determinants of health were assessed including: parents and children socio-demographic characteristics, families’ living and economic status, parents’ behavioral factors, household food security, mother’s general health, and perceived social support. Children’s growth was assessed based on their anthropometric assessment and their development was assessed using their age-specific Ages and Stages Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using univariable and multivariable logistic regression models using SPSS software version 24 and Stata version 14.

Results: The prevalence of developmental problems in each domain were 4.28% for personal and social delay, 5.72% for gross motor delay, 6.5% for communication delay, 6.72% for fine motor delay, and 8% for problem-solving delay. The prevalence of weight growth delays was 13.56% and height growth delays was 4.66%. Communication, gross motor, and problem-solving delays were higher among children whose fathers’ smoked cigarettes. Fine motor delays were lower among mothers with education status of high school diploma and university degree vs. the under diploma group. Personal and social delay was significantly higher among families with fair economic status and lower among children when their fathers were employed (vs. unemployed). Weight and height growth delays were higher among mothers who had experienced pregnancy complications and household food insecure families, respectively.

Conclusion: There are different predictors of growth and developmental delay problems among Iranian children aged under five years including fathers’ smoking, families’ economic status, and household food insecurity as well as history of mothers’ pregnancy complications. The present study’s findings can be used to screen for at-risk of growth and developmental delays among children and could help in designing and implementation of timely interventions.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: BMC Pediatrics
Creators: Alijanzadeh, M., RajabiMajd, N., RezaeiNiaraki, M., Griffiths, M.D. and Alimoradi, Z.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26 June 2024
Volume: 24
ISSN: 1471-2431
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1186/s12887-024-04880-2DOI
1908001Other
Rights: © The Author(s) 2024 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: Jeremy Silvester
Date Added: 28 Jun 2024 15:30
Last Modified: 28 Jun 2024 15:30
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/51652

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