Sampling survey of disability in 0-6 year-old children in China.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the current status of disabled children and prevalence of disabilities in children aged 0-6 years and their risk factors, and to provide scientific evidence for making relevant policies for disabled children. METHODS In a community-based cross-sectional study, multi-phase, stratified, unequal proportional and cluster sampling was adopted to survey 60 124 children aged 0-6 years. All the investigated children were screened for disabilities, and those with positive screening tests were further diagnosed by various specialties. RESULTS A total of 819 children were diagnosed as disabled with an overall prevalence of 1.362%, 0.155% for hearing disability, 0.160% for visual disability, 0.931% for intelligent disability, 0.424% for limb disability, and 0.101% for mental disability. Prevalence of disability in children was higher in rural areas, and in families with two or more children, low educational level or in divorced families. CONCLUSION The prevalence of disability can be reduced by economic development, improvement of health care and quality of population, as well as harmonious familial relationship, early prevention of disability, and preschool education for disabled children.