{"title":"Is There Uniformity in the Diagnosis of Learning Disability Globally?","authors":"Ashima Nehra, Ruchita Hazrati, Rhythm Makkar, Rajesh Hassija, Sanyam Bhardwaj, Apoorva Panshikar","doi":"10.4103/ijph.ijph_1274_23","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Learning disabilities (LDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental deficits that negatively affect the acquisition, organization, retention, comprehension, or application of age appropriate knowledge. Persons with LD lead a subsidized quality of life, especially in academic/vocational and psychosocial domains. A certificate issued by the medical boards at a state or district level is required to avail benefits such as scribes or relaxations. This may be done through a series of assessments by psychologists, special educators, or other health-care professionals. The authors aim to understand if uniformity exists in the assessment methods used for the diagnosis of LD globally and to prepare a gap analysis for the same. A systematic review was performed on English literature articles published from January 2005 to August 2023. Full-text studies reporting assessment and diagnostic methods of LD were included. A total of 1246 records were identified through a manual search of an electronic database. Seven duplicates were removed and 1174 studies were excluded based on the relevance by screening titles, abstracts, and full texts. Sixty-five studies were included and analyzed. The authors found a lack of uniformity in this diagnostic protocol, leading to uncertainty in disability certification, doctor shopping, and additional stress for the patients, as well as added burden on the government. Identification of LD requires a multistep assessment process with culturally relevant tools and norms and the participation of a multidisciplinary team of experts.</p>","PeriodicalId":13298,"journal":{"name":"Indian journal of public health","volume":"68 2","pages":"276-283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Indian journal of public health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4103/ijph.ijph_1274_23","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/6/29 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Learning disabilities (LDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental deficits that negatively affect the acquisition, organization, retention, comprehension, or application of age appropriate knowledge. Persons with LD lead a subsidized quality of life, especially in academic/vocational and psychosocial domains. A certificate issued by the medical boards at a state or district level is required to avail benefits such as scribes or relaxations. This may be done through a series of assessments by psychologists, special educators, or other health-care professionals. The authors aim to understand if uniformity exists in the assessment methods used for the diagnosis of LD globally and to prepare a gap analysis for the same. A systematic review was performed on English literature articles published from January 2005 to August 2023. Full-text studies reporting assessment and diagnostic methods of LD were included. A total of 1246 records were identified through a manual search of an electronic database. Seven duplicates were removed and 1174 studies were excluded based on the relevance by screening titles, abstracts, and full texts. Sixty-five studies were included and analyzed. The authors found a lack of uniformity in this diagnostic protocol, leading to uncertainty in disability certification, doctor shopping, and additional stress for the patients, as well as added burden on the government. Identification of LD requires a multistep assessment process with culturally relevant tools and norms and the participation of a multidisciplinary team of experts.
期刊介绍:
Indian Journal of Public Health is a peer-reviewed international journal published Quarterly by the Indian Public Health Association. It is indexed / abstracted by the major international indexing systems like Index Medicus/MEDLINE, SCOPUS, PUBMED, etc. The journal allows free access (Open Access) to its contents and permits authors to self-archive final accepted version of the articles. The Indian Journal of Public Health publishes articles of authors from India and abroad with special emphasis on original research findings that are relevant for developing country perspectives including India. The journal considers publication of articles as original article, review article, special article, brief research article, CME / Education forum, commentary, letters to editor, case series reports, etc. The journal covers population based studies, impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation, systematic review, meta-analysis, clinic-social studies etc., related to any domain and discipline of public health, specially relevant to national priorities, including ethical and social issues. Articles aligned with national health issues and policy implications are prefered.