Evaluation of 1‑year‑old children development in Isfahan City and its effective factors using ages and stages questionnaire, in 2014

Attention to the development of children as the future generation that leads to the upbringing of productive human resources is an important subject. Development has dimensions that a child should acquire the skills related to them in proper age. Otherwise, he may be affected by developmental delays. There are different factors influencing children’s developmental delays and this study is carried out to evaluate the developmental conditions of 1‑year‑old children in the Isfahan and its effective factors.

In a historical cohort, 725 children born in 2013 were selected using multi‑stage random sampling from health centers licensed by Isfahan Medical University and followed up to 1‑year and their related specifications were extracted from ages and stages questionnaire and their families’ files. SPSS 20 software and Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients, independent t‑tests, ANOVA, multiple linear regression and analysis of covariance were used for analyzing the data.

The minimum and maximum scores of development were observed in the personal‑social domain (52.38 ± 9.1) and fine motor (56.06 ± 5.9), respectively. The results showed that the child spacing has direct relation with development in fine motor domain (r = 0.2, P < 0.001), personal‑social development (r = 0.197, P = 0.001), and problem solving domain (r = 0.18, P = 0.002). The score for the development in gross motor skills had a direct correlation with the weight at birth (r = 0.129, P < 0.001). Breastfeeding also improved personal‑social development (P = 0.024). Sex (P = 0.024) and living place with communication skills also showed significant relations (P < 0.001).

The factors such as the child’s sex, feeding in the first 6 months of age, living in urban or rural areas are effective in delayed development. Considering these factors to prevent adverse effects of the elements and rapid identification of children with delayed development as well as timely therapeutic interventions are essential in the health care system.