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The purpose of this work is to analyse the cerebral palsy (CP) incidence, aetiology, birthweight, types and/or subdiagnosis and associated impairments, individually or in combination, in children at Riyadh Military Hospital (RMH). The study covered the birth year period 1984 - 2003, during which 99,788 live births were recorded at Riyadh Military Hospital (RMH). Incidence ratio and clinical features of 412 positive cases of cerebral palsied children between 1 - 10 years old were investigated. Medical information was collected from patient files at the medical records department. The incidence of CP was 0.41%. The five intervals of the study period gave a pattern of decreasing percentage incidence. The case distribution according to birth weight, aetiology, duration and subdiagnoses was studied. It could be concluded that livebirth incidence of cerebral palsied patients in Saudi Arabia was relatively high as compared to most other studies. Severe disability due to cerebral palsy was associated with impairments such as mental retardation, epilepsy and visual impairments, often found in combinations.

A large scale prevalence study for child disability of those under 15 years was conducted in a representative Saudi population with accurate demographic records. A 83% response rate in children of six to 15 years (1280 out of 1544 children registered) of age and a 100% response rate in children under five years (all the 1151 registered) was achieved. Thirty one children had severe impairment and 322 had minor impairment. This accounted for 3.76 per 1000 total population with major impairment and 42.8 per 1000 total for minor impairment.

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