Down syndrome in tribal population in India: A field observation

Down syndrome (DS) is a prevalent genetic disorder in intellectual disability (ID) in India. Its prevalence in tribal population is not known.

The study aimed to understand the profile of DS in a tribal population with an objective of finding the prevalence of DS among those with ID.

This is a community-based study with a survey design.

A door-to-door survey was conducted by trained, community-based rehabilitation workers under close supervision of multidisciplinary team to identify people with ID. A standardized screening instrument National Institute for Mentally Handicapped-Developmental Screening Schedule was used in the survey. All identified ID cases were evaluated by therapists in IDs for diagnosis of ID on developmental screening test and Vineland social maturity scale. Clinical examination was performed by medical doctors for DS on people identified as ID. Only two parents brought their children for further lab investigations at Ashagram Trust, Barwani.

Descriptive statistics was applied manually to treat the data.

The frequency of DS population in tribal population closely matches with DS prevalence in the USA. Mothers of DS children in the tribal community are relatively younger.

Prevalence of DS in tribal population of India may greatly vary with that of the US data, but it is markedly associated with younger maternal age. Further studies are needed for prevalence and identification of potential correlates of this condition.