[Risks related to disability on children aged 0-4 in China: analysis on the supporting effects from family].

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the correlated effects of family environment on children aged 0-4 who were suffered from disabilities. Economic conditions of the families and socio-economic status of the parents were also analyzed.
Based on the database from the National Sample Survey on Disability in 2006, a new database was intercepted with the information of children aged 0-4 and their parents. The total sample size was 73 394. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were used to explore the effects related to family environment. Software used in statistical analysis was SPSS 16.0.
The risks of disability started before the age of 3, and increased along with age (the odds ratios on children at 0 to 4 years old were 0.47, 0.66, 0.90, 1.56 and 1.47), which described the "cumulative" nature of prevalence levels of disability. The risk of disability among male children was higher than female (OR = 0.82). The lower the per capita household income was, the higher the risks of disability of the children (OR(≤683) = 1.80; OR(684-944) = 1.79; OR(945-2948) = 1.23; OR(2949-7254) = 0.71; OR(≥7255) = 0.34) appeared. When living together with parents under the same roof, the risk of disability was significantly correlated with their parents' schooling: literate vs. illiteracy (with father P ≤ 0.001, OR = 2.18 and mother P = 0.02, OR = 1.82). Regarding the parents elementary school education, it appeared that only on father, the result was P = 0.05, OR = 1.56. Employment status of the father was not significantly correlated with children's incidence of disability, while the mother's employment status was significant (P = 0.02, OR = 1.19). Data from the descriptive analysis showed that factors as first marriage and remarriage of the mother were significantly correlated to their children's occurrence of disability while remarriage of the father was also a significant factor. However, in multivariate analysis, both father and mother's marriage status were not significantly important.
Reducing the risk of disability was important on the health of children. Among younger children, the family environment appeared to have the direct impact on the occurrence of disability.