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. 2023 Feb 16:11:1122009.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1122009. eCollection 2023.

Global prevalence of developmental disabilities in children and adolescents: A systematic umbrella review

Bolajoko O Olusanya  1 , Tracey Smythe  2   3 , Felix A Ogbo  4   5 , M K C Nair  6 , Mark Scher  7   8 , Adrian C Davis  9   10
Affiliations

Global prevalence of developmental disabilities in children and adolescents: A systematic umbrella review

Bolajoko O Olusanya et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Aim: The provisions of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for disability-inclusive education have stimulated a growing interest in ascertaining the prevalence of children with developmental disabilities globally. We aimed to systematically summarize the prevalence estimates of developmental disabilities in children and adolescents reported in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Methods: For this umbrella review we searched PubMed, Scopus, Embase, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library for systematic reviews published in English between September 2015 and August 2022. Two reviewers independently assessed study eligibility, extracted the data, and assessed risk of bias. We reported the proportion of the global prevalence estimates attributed to country income levels for specific developmental disabilities. Prevalence estimates for the selected disabilities were compared with those reported in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019.

Results: Based on our inclusion criteria, 10 systematic reviews reporting prevalence estimates for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, developmental intellectual disability, epilepsy, hearing loss, vision loss and developmental dyslexia were selected from 3,456 identified articles. Global prevalence estimates were derived from cohorts in high-income countries in all cases except epilepsy and were calculated from nine to 56 countries. Sensory impairments were the most prevalent disabilities (approximately 13%) and cerebral palsy was the least prevalent disability (approximately 0.2-0.3%) based on the eligible reviews. Pooled estimates for geographical regions were available for vision loss and developmental dyslexia. All studies had a moderate to high risk of bias. GBD prevalence estimates were lower for all disabilities except cerebral palsy and intellectual disability.

Conclusion: Available estimates from systematic reviews and meta-analyses do not provide representative evidence on the global and regional prevalence of developmental disabilities among children and adolescents due to limited geographical coverage and substantial heterogeneity in methodology across studies. Population-based data for all regions using other approaches such as reported in the GBD Study are warranted to inform global health policy and intervention.

Keywords: Global Burden of Disease; SDG 4.2; developmental disabilities; developmental epidemiology; early childhood development; global health; inclusive education.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer CS declared a past co-authorship with the author BO to the handling editor.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the study selection process and results.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence estimates of selected developmental disabilities in children under 20 years in 2019 by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study Group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. United Nations . Sustainable Development Goals. UN, New York. (2015). Available online at: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ (accessed November 30, 2022).
    1. UNICEF . Seen, counted, included: Using data to shed light on the well-being of children with disabilities. New York: United Nations Children's Fund. (2021). Available online at: https://data.unicef.org/resources/children-with-disabilities-report-2021/ (accessed November 30, 2022).
    1. Olusanya BO, Kancherla V, Shaheen A, Ogbo FA, Davis AC. Global and regional prevalence of disabilities among children and adolescents: Analysis of findings from global health databases. Front Public Health. 10:977453. 10.3389/fpubh.2022.977453 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) 2006 . CRPD. (2006). Available online at: https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e.pdf (accessed November 30, 2022).
    1. United States . Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Human Resources. The Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 1990. Washington, DC. (1990).

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