Developmental disabilities among children younger than 5 years in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

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Olusanya, B. O., Davis, A. C., Wertlieb, D., Boo, N. Y., Nair, M., Halpern, R., Kuper, H., Breinbauer, C., de Vries, P. J., Gladstone, M., Halfon, N., Kancherla, V., Mulaudzi, M. C., Kakooza-Mwesige, A., Ogbo, F. A., Olusanya, J. O., Williams, A. N., Wright, S. M., Manguerra, H.,..., & Kassebaum, N. J. (2018). Developmental disabilities among children younger than 5 years in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. The Lancet Global Health, 6(10), e1100-e1121. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(18)30309-7

Publication date: 29 Aug 2018 Added to AutiHub: 29 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
33
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 33 (3.0%)
  1. Bolajoko O. Olusanya
  2. Adrian C. Davis
  3. Donald Wertlieb
  4. Nem-Yun Boo
  5. M.K.C. Nair
  6. Ricardo Halpern
  7. Hannah Kuper
  8. Cecilia Breinbauer
  9. Petrus J de Vries
  10. Melissa Gladstone
  11. Neal Halfon
  1. Vijaya Kancherla
  2. Mphelekedzeni C. Mulaudzi
  3. Angelina Kakooza-Mwesige
  4. Felix A. Ogbo
  5. Jacob O. Olusanya
  6. Andrew N. Williams
  7. Scott M. Wright
  8. Helena Manguerra
  9. Alison Smith
  10. Michelle Echko
  11. Chad Ikeda
  1. Angela Liu
  2. Anoushka Millear
  3. Katherine Ballesteros
  4. Emma Nichols
  5. Holly E. Erskine
  6. Damian Santomauro *
  7. Zane Rankin
  8. Mari Smith
  9. Harvey A. Whiteford
  10. Helen E. Olsen
  11. Nicholas J. Kassebaum

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mandate systematic monitoring of the health and wellbeing of all children to achieve optimal early childhood development. However, global epidemiological data on children with developmental disabilities are scarce. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 provides a comprehensive assessment of prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs) for development disabilities among children younger than 5 years in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016. METHODS: We estimated prevalence and YLDs for epilepsy, intellectual disability, hearing loss, vision loss, autism spectrum disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. YLDs were estimated as the product of the prevalence estimate and the disability weight for each mutually exclusive disorder, corrected for comorbidity. We used DisMod-MR 2.1, a Bayesian meta-regression tool, on a pool of primary data derived from systematic reviews of the literature, health surveys, hospital and claims databases, cohort studies, and disease-specific registries. FINDINGS: Globally, 52·9 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 48·7-57·3; or 8·4% [7·7-9·1]) children younger than 5 years (54% males) had developmental disabilities in 2016 compared with 53·0 million (49·0-57·1; or 8·9% [8·2-9·5]) in 1990. About 95% of these children lived in low-income and middle-income countries. YLDs among these children increased from 3·8 million (95% UI 2·8-4·9) in 1990 to 3·9 million (2·9-5·2) in 2016. These disabilities accounted for 13·3% of the 29·3 million YLDs for all health conditions among children younger than 5 years in 2016. Vision loss was the most prevalent disability, followed by hearing loss, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorder. However, intellectual disability was the largest contributor to YLDs in both 1990 and 2016. Although the prevalence of developmental disabilities among children younger than 5 years decreased in all countries (except for North America) between 1990 and 2016, the number of children with developmental disabilities increased significantly in sub-Saharan Africa (71·3%) and in North Africa and the Middle East (7·6%). South Asia had the highest prevalence of children with developmental disabilities in 2016 and North America had the lowest. INTERPRETATION: The global burden of developmental disabilities has not significantly improved since 1990, suggesting inadequate global attention on the developmental potential of children who survived childhood as a result of child survival programmes, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. The SDGs provide a framework for policy and action to address the needs of children with or at risk of developmental disabilities, particularly in resource-poor countries. FUNDING: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
50
With a DOI
37
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
10
3 / 50 (6.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
9 / 50 (18.0%)
References with detected author names
41 / 50 (82.0%)
Without detected author names
9
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
8
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
2528
From DOI or external metadata
2528
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
247 / 2528 (9.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 2281 / 2528 (90.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
3 / 2528 (0.1%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 3 / 247 (1.2%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 1076 (0.1%).
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