Mental Retardation (MR) Etiology in Children Referred to Care Services

It is estimated that 2800000 to 4800000 individuals in Iran suffer from some kind of mental or physical handicap. According to Iranian social welfare university, about 24000 mental retard children would be added to this population. The aim of this study was to evaluate demographic factors which were associated with mental retardation in Khorasan Razavi population. In this cross sectional study, the records of all mentally retarded children who had been referred for further evaluation to Mashhad social welfare was evaluated between 2004 and 2013. To evaluate mental retardation severity, Vineland social maturity scale was used for children younger than (5.5) years old, or the older children who did not respond to other tests. In cases of children older than (5.5) years who could communicate, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and Raven''s Progressive Matrices were performed. Tests final confirmation hanged on psychiatric interview and clinical assessment. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 16 and parametric and non parametric tests were used. A population of 200 children with a mean age of 7.5±6.6 years were evaluated. Smoking, drug abuse and consanguineous marriage were the main factors associated with mental retardation severity. (57%) of children had a relative with mental retardation. Considering Mental Retardation (MR) financial burden, planning to reduce and control preventable factors such as parents’ drug abuse could be possible through education and cultural changes.