Clinical analysis of 1048 children with developmental delay

Background: Children with developmental delay (DD) have a variety of problems in developmental functions. The purposes of this study were to analyze the underlying diseases and risk factors in children with different functional delays. Methods: We collected data on 1048 children who underwent assessments of developmental function, related diseases, and risk factors. All children were classified into 6 functional delay groups: cognitive, speech, motor, pervasive, global, and non-specific DDs. Differences in related diseases and risk factors of the 6 functional delay groups were determined. Results: Most children had global (51.2%), speech (21.9%), and motor (13.9%) delays. Approximately 62.8% of children were associated with biological factors (19% with genetic defects or congenital anomalies, 16.5% with central nervous system lesions, 13.9% with prematurity/low birth body weight, and 13.4% with neonatal insult). We could not identify the risk factors in 36.6% of the children. Most children with motor delay had brain/neuromuscular diseases and were associated with risks of prematurity or low birth body weight; while most children with global delay had brain neuromuscular diseases or psychological/mental disorders and were associated with risks of genetic defects or congenital anomalies. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that there are heterogeneous risk factors and related diseases in children with different kinds of functional delay.