Endemic cretinism in a traditional society in Mali: from the collectivity to the individual.

The prevalence of endemic cretinism was measured in a village belonging to the Bwa ethnic group in Mali liable to iodine deficiency and suffering from endemic goitre. In this village according to mental and motor handicaps found in cretinism, we used two psychometric tests: the Raven's Progressive Matrice (PM 47) and a "peg test". Using the fiduciary inference method on the two tests associated with a clinical and qualitative approach, we obtained a prevalence of myxedematous cretinism close to 1.2%.