title: Inequality in School Readiness and Autism among 6-Year-Old Children across Iranian Provinces: National Health Assessment Survey Results.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the national inequality of school readiness and autism among 6-year-old Iranian children before school entry using a national health assessment survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a cross-sectional nationwide survey, all Iranian children entering public and private elementary schools were asked to participate in a mandatory national screening program in Iran in 2009 in two levels of screening and diagnostic levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study population consisted of 955388 children (48.5% girls and 76.1% urban residents). Of the whole children, 3.1% of the 6-year-old children had impaired vision. In addition, 1.2, 1.8, 1.4, 7.6, 0.08, 10, 10.9, 56.7, 0.7, 0.8 and 0.6 percent had color blindness, hearing impaired, speech disorder, school readiness, autism, height to age retardation, body mass index extremes, decayed teeth, disease with special needs, spinal disorders, and hypertension, respectively. The distribution of these disorders was unequally distributed across provinces.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results confirmed that there is an inequality in distribution of school readiness and autism in 6-year-old children across Iranian provinces. The observed burden of these distributions among young children needs a comprehensive national policy with evidence-based province programs to identify the reason for different inequality among provinces.
authors.affiliation: Social Health Determinants Research Center and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran.
authors.forename: Amiri
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Masoud
authors.forename: Kelishadi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Roya
authors.forename: Motlagh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohammad-Esmaeil
authors.forename: Taslimi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mahnaz
authors.forename: Dashti
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marziyeh
authors.forename: Aminaee
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tahereh
authors.forename: Ardalan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gelayol
authors.forename: Poursafa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Parinaz
keywords: Autism; Children; Inequality; Iran; National Health Assessment Survey; School Readiness
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