A study on prevalence of minor physical anomalies in mentally retarded children in a tertiary care centre of India

Abstract

Background: Paucity of studies in world literature and lack of any Indian study assessing the frequency, prevalence and severity of minor physical anomalies (MPAs) in children with mental retardation (MR) as well as their importance for prediction and timely recognition of mental insufficiency, if any.Methods: A cross-sectional observational study involving 273 mentally retarded children aged 5-18 years was conducted over a period of one year and were compared with their age and sex matched controls. Waldrop and Halverson (1971) physical anomaly scale was used to assess those MPAs.Results: In the study group, higher percentage (79.85% vs. 40.29%) of children had MPAs with a predominance of multiple MPAs in comparison to healthy children (40.29% and 0%, respectively). Higher average frequency of MPAs per child was noted in the study group (1.42) than control group (0.40). Mean Waldrop weighting score was significantly higher among mentally retarded children than their controls (3.7±0.8 versus 0.8±0.2, P<0.0001). Authors noticed a gradual and significant decrease in Waldrop score with increase in intelligence quotient (IQ) [F=175.72, P<0.001]. A significant strong negative correlation between Waldrop score and IQ level (r=-0.89, P<0.001) was also observed. Out of eighteen variables of Waldrop score, seven were found as significant in binary logistic regression model for MR. Our model can explain 37.6% to 50.1% variability of the MR.Conclusions: MPAs are more prevalent in mentally retarded children than healthy children.  A clear-cut demarcation between these two groups is possible by the frequency of anomalies and the increased strength of their expression (i.e. their weighting scores).