Factors Associated with Early Childhood Development in Regional Health Area 9

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess the situations and factors associated with early childhood development in Regional Health area 9. The subjects of this study were mothers, fathers and caregivers and 974 children in Regional Health area 9. The samples were selected through three-stage cluster sampling. Demographic data and medical history were obtained through the maternal and child health record books, questionnaire and Denver II developmental screening test. The data were collected from April to June 2017. Data analysis utilized descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, averages and standard deviations. Multiple logistic regression tests were used for the analyses of associates among various factors.

Results showed that about 66.9 percent of the samples had appropriate developmental status. Child development in certain areas showed that the child development in certain aspects that were found at an appropriate levels were as follows: the social aspect was found appropriate at 91.7%, the fine motor aspect was found appropriate at 92.3%, the gross motor aspect was found at 93.4%, and finally the language aspect was found appropriate at the lowest level among the four aspects at 76.1%.

Factors that were found associated with early childhood development included maternal factors such as mother’s age, education, whether they took iodine and whether they drank alcohol. Early childhood factors found associated with their development included birth weight, whether they had congenital disease and pneumonia. Environment factors found associated with child development included attending quality antenatal care (ANC) at least 5 times, electronics media use and the quality of their storytelling to their children.

It was suggested from this study that: 1) quality services provided at mothers’ and children’s clinic should be improved to increase mothers’ attendance to quality antenatal care (attending at least 5 visits), promoting nutrition during pregnancy, and included guidelines to prevent premature labor and low birth weight (less than 2,500 grams.) 2) The measures should be focused on tracking, monitoring, evaluation and surveillance of the development in early childhood.