International Journal of Child Development and Mental Health (Jan 2016)
Overview of the Reporting Sources of Developmentallydelayed Children in Taiwan Between 2011 and 2012
Abstract
Early Intervention (EI) services, as defined in The Bye-laws of Children and Youth Welfare Law, provided for 1.2 % of the nation’s infants, toddlers and preschool children between 2011 and 2012; however, the proportion was higher in some counties or cities and lower in others. In order to elucidate factors that may influence reporting rates, we analyzed the reporting sources from 23 counties/cities between 2011 and 2012. We analyzed registry data of newly reported cases between 2011 and 2012, published by the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Interior of Taiwan. The reporting sources were categorized into eight types, and the percentage of cases reported by each source was calculated. The statistical relationship between these variables and the reporting rates were analyzed with suitable methods. P value < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. The estimated 2-year average reporting rate of new cases was 11.97‰. The reporting rate was significantly higher among children living in counties compared with children living in cities (P = 0.0007). The reporting rate was also significantly higher among children living in low urbanized areas as compared with children living in highly urbanized areas (P = 0.0067). The proportion of medical organization reported cases was the highest of all the reporting sources (39.99%). Higher reporting rates from householders, guardians and health centers positively affected the total reporting rates (P = 0.0499 and P=0.0151, respectively). In conclusion our study shows that many sources contribute to the notification of children at risk or with developmental delay, with implications for regular surveillance and screening children development by people involved with them. Incorporating more efficient developmental screening tools, including parent-concerned based screening questionnaires during health screening, with additional staff to do the screening, may increase the proportion of children with possible developmental delay being notified.
