گزارش ثبت معلولیت ملی در مورد علل معلولیت ذهنی در تایوان: 2000-2007

The main purposes of the present analysis were to describe the causes of intellectual disability (ID) and examine its overtime change from 2000 to 2007 in Taiwan. Data of the present study mainly come from the public web-access information which collected by the Department of Statistics, Ministry of the Interiors, Taipei, Taiwan. Data were obtained from two ways of 2000–2007 national data: (1) The physically and mentally disabled population by cause; (2) Taiwan general population by age. The present results found that the congenital disability and the disease were the main causes among the ID population in Taiwan. The overtime trend (2000–2007) of causes among the ID population illustrated that the percentage of congenital-caused ID was decreasing and the disease-caused ID was increasing slightly. However, both of above two causes – congenital- and disease-caused ID prevalence – were increasing slightly in the Taiwan general population in the year 2000–2007. The present analysis suggests that the current disability registers should re-examine the ID-caused categories according to the evidence-based literatures regarding attributive risks for this group of people in Taiwan.

Leonard and Wen (2002) revealed that recent etiological studies of intellectual disability (ID), most of which use different classification systems, have been reviewed and explanations have been postulated to account for differences in results. They also pointed out that variation between studies in the prevalence of ID cases with a known etiology is likely to be affected by the already known etiology and the specialty of the professional. According to a report entitle “Prenatal and Perinatal Factors Associated with Brain Disorders” by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, the causes of severe mental retardation are primarily genetic, biochemical, viral, and developmental and not related to birth events. Mild retardation, the most common degree of retardation, appears to be related not to pregnancy on birth events, but rather to social and environmental conditions. Associated factors include maternal life-styles such as poor nutrition, cigarette smoking, and alcohol and drug abuse (Task Force on Joint Assessment of Prenatal and Perinatal Factors Associated with Brain Disorders, 1985). It is clear that all stages of fatal and neonatal development influence the outcome of ID cases (Rosen & Hobel, 1986), and the most commonly identified medical etiology that have been associated with ID included prenatal factors, perinatal factors, and postnatal factors and demonstrate a continuum effects (Accardo & Capute, 1998). They concluded that the majority of ID cases remain without any specific etiology, but it is often assumed that milder ID is more compatible with familial, environmental, and social class factors. However, as Freeman et al. (1986) stated that despite major advances in obstetrics and neonatal medicine, physicians, and attorneys still believe that the major causes of the ID cases which manifested in brain disorders are related to brain trauma and the problems of labor. Therefore, it is needed to examine the cause of ID to provide information to public health system to initiate the health policy for preventing the occurrence of this group of people. The main purposes of the present analysis are to describe the causes of ID and examine its overtime change from 2000 to 2007 in Taiwan.