The Community Impact of Handicaps of Prenatal or Natal Origin

In their latest paper based on the Kauai Preganancy Study the authors have turned their attention to the sublethal components of preganancy wastage. They analyzed the nature and magnitude of all defects and deficits of prenatal and natal origin found during the first 2 years of life in a time sample of 1,963 liveborn. Available data made possible the calculation of incidence rates of defects for the liveborn of an entire community and an estimation of their impact in terms of care required. Included are congenital defects, mental retardation, clinical prematurity, birth trauma, cerebral palsy, and convulsive disorders. The affected children were classified in terms of the severity of their handicaps and the type and duration of care received. The authors found that while 17.0 percent of the study children had some kind of defect, almost half required little or no special care. Of the 10 percent requiring special care, almost two-thirds had conditions that were amenable to relatively short-term, skilled, medical and nursing care. The remainder, almost 4 percent of the liveborn, required various combinations of long-term, skilled diagnostic and treatment services, special education, and custodial care.