Prevalence and risk factors of neurological impairment among children aged 6–9 years: from population based cross sectional study in western Kenya

The present study was conducted in Mbita district (which has high HIV infectious prevalence), Kenya from April 2009 to December 2010. The study consisted of two phases. In phase 1, the Ten Question Questionnaire (TQQ) was administered to all 6362 caregivers of children aged 6–9 years. In phase two, all 413 children with TQQ positive and a similar number of controls (n=420) which were randomly selected from children with TQQ negative were examined for physical and cognitive status. In addition, a structured questionnaire was also conducted to their caregivers.The prevalence was estimated to be 29/1000. Among the types of impairments, cognitive impairment was the most common (24/1000), followed by physical impairment (5/1000). In multivariate analysis, having more than five children [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 2.85; 95%IC: 1.25 – 6.49; p=0.013], maternal age older than 35 years old [AOR: 2.31; 95%IC: 1.05 – 5.07; p=0.036] were significant factors associated with NI. In addition, monthly income under 3000 ksh [AOR: 2.79; 95%IC: 1.28 – 6.08; p=0.010] and no maternal tetanus shot during antenatal care [AOR: 5.17; 95%IC: 1.56 – 17.14; p=0.007] were also significantly related with having moderate/severe neurological impairment.It was indicated that increasing coverage of antenatal care including maternal tetanus shot and education of how to take care of neonatal children to prevent neurological impairment are important.The average global prevalence of moderate and severe disability is estimated to be 5% in children aged 0–14 years. Disability among children in low-income countries is more common than high-income countries [1]. The number of children with disabilities (CWDs) in Sub-Sahara Africa is estimated to increase with the reduction in child mortality [2]. Furthermore, neurological impairment such as epilepsy, hearing impairment, vision impairment, physical impairment and cognitive impairments is one of the important causes of disability and death. It estimated to acc