Determinants of Speech and Language Development Delay among Children inYekatit 12 Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2023: a Case Control Study
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Date
2023
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Speech and language development delay occurs when a child isn’t attaining
speech and language milestones at the expected age and it can lead to poor social interaction,
attention difficulties, reduced writing and reading skills, cognitive and behavioral problems.
Despite increasing speech and language development delay in the country, literary works do not
address determining factors for the delay.
Objectives: The study was aimed to identify the determinants of speech and language
development delay among children in Yekatit 12 Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2023
Method: Institutional-based unmatched case-control study was conducted from April 5 – April
30, 2023, on 50 cases and 100 controls aged between 1 and 12 years in Yekatit 12 Hospital.
Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from children’s parents or
caregivers. The cases were selected consecutively while the controls were selected by simple
random sampling. The collected data was entered by Epi info version 7 and cleaned and analyzed
by SPSS version 26. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted and
the significant association was identified based on the Adjusted odds ratio (AOR), with 95% CI
and p-value (<0.05).
Results: In this study, 50 cases and 100 control were included with a 100% response rate. The
mean age of the cases was 50.84 (SD ±34.43) months while the control children’s mean age was
51.42 (SD ±32.21). Among the cases, 46% were males and 54% were females, whereas among
the controls, 54% were males and 46% were females. Mothers of 82% of the cases and 72% of
the control were below diploma level. Around one-third of the fathers in the cases (32%) and
controls (35%) had high school and diploma and above education respectively. A significant
proportion of the mothers were housewives, with 74% of cases and 69% of controls found in this
category. The majority of the fathers were employed or self-employed (72% of the cases and
85% of the controls). Most of the participants reside in urban areas, with 82% of cases and 89%
of controls falling under this category. Monthly income between 5001 to 10,000 ETB was found
in 64% of the cases and 36% of the controls. The majority of both the cases (90%) and controls
(86%) had at least one sibling. More than half of the controls (57%) and a significant of the
controls (42%) of the cases were firstborns. In both the cases and control groups, around 50% of
the fathers age at birth were between the ages of 31 and 40. Half of the cases and 64% of the
controls have mothers in the age group of 31 to 30 and 21 to 30 at their birth respectively.
After the multivariate analysis older father’s age at birth (>40 years) [AOR=3.38, 95 CI (1.05-
10.90)], birth asphyxia [AOR=4.58, 95CI (1.23-16.99)], bottle-feeding [AOR=4.54, 95CI (1.29-
16.04)], mother-child separation [AOR=2.6, 95CI (1.05-6.43)], multilingual family [AOR=2.31,
95CI (1.03-5.18)] and screen time of two or more hours [AOR=3.06, 95CI (1.29-7.28)].
Conclusion: Older father’s age at birth, birth asphyxia, bottle-feeding, mother-child separation,
multilingual family and screen time of two or more hours were found to be associated with
speech and language development delay. Thus, interventions that target the modifiable
determinants should be devised and early diagnosis and treatment should be available
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Keywords
Speech and language development delay, determinants, Addis Ababa