The study of speech and language disorders prevalence in patients referred to the Speech therapy clinic in Tehran Rehabilitation Faculty during 10 years

Epidemiology is one of the Health Sciences issues that is considered as a supplement to the basic sciences and clinical laboratory in speech-language pathology and audiology. Having an understanding of the prevalence of communication disorders, especially speech and language disorders, can help us devise better plans for the patient's rehabilitation programs.
In the present cross-sectional study, 2003 records, from a 10-year period, were studied in the archives of the Speech Therapy Clinic in Tehran Rehabilitation Faculty. All the 851 cases were selected based on systematic sampling and the data was analyzed using SPSS (v. 16).
Important findings include: from among 851 records, 401 patients (%47.1) aged between 1 to 5 years. A total of 343 patients (%40.3) had speech and language delay. Also, 184 patients (6.21%) had articulation and voice disorders and 180 patients (2.21%) were stutterers.
The largest number of referrals to the speech therapy clinics was the delayed speech and language disorders, and the apraxia and PKU had the lowest rates. The ratio of male to female patients was approximately 2 to 1.