Quality of life in Cerebral Palsy child

Abstract

Cerebral Palsy is considered a neurological disorder caused by a non-progressive brain injury or malformation that occurs during brain development. Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement and posture disorders that causes limitations in activities, usually accompanied by sensory, cognitive, communication, perception, behavior alterations, and/or seizures. Cerebral palsy can be divided according to etiology into prenatal (70 – 80 %), perinatal (10 – 20%) and postnatal (10 – 20%). Health-related quality of life (QOL) is a subdomain of QOL that encompasses physical, mental, and social well-being. For children with CP, health-related QOL has been increasingly positioned as an important outcome indictor. This is a cross sectional study done in a group of 200 pediatric patients with cerebral palsy. All candidates were subjected to detailed history taking including demographic, perinatal, medication & dietetic history (24 hour recall), complete clinical examination including Gross Motor Functional Classification System (GMFCS), Anthropometric measurements including weight, height /tibial length, mid arm circumference & occipitofrontal circumference And they were subjected to LAQ- CP questionnaire to evaluate the impact of disability in children with CP and their families. There was statistically significant difference between quality of life of CP patients regarding classifications according to age, anthropometric measures, GMFCS & daily caloric intake. Yet, there was no statistically significant difference between classifications of CP patients via GMFCS according to nutrition.