Abstract
Background: Nutritional status assessment (NSA) can be challenging in children with cerebral palsy (CP). There are high omission rates in national surveillance reports of weight and height information. Alternative methods are used to assess nutritional status that may be unknown to the healthcare professionals (HCP) who report these children. Caregivers experience challenges when dealing with feeding problems (FP) common in CP. Our aim was to assess the difficulties in NSA which are causing this underreport and to create solutions for registers and caregivers. Methods: An online questionnaire was created for registers. Three meetings with HCP and caregivers were held to discuss problems and solutions regarding NSA and intervention. Results: HCP mentioned difficulty in NSA due to a lack of time, collaboration with others, equipment, and childrens’ motor impairment. Caregivers experienced difficulty in preparing nutritious meals with adapted textures. The creation of educational tools and other strategies were suggested. A toolkit for HCP was created with the weight and height assessment methods described and other for caregivers to deal with common FP. Conclusions: There are several difficulties experienced by HCP that might be overcome with educational tools, such as a toolkit. This will facilitate nutritional assessment and intervention and hopefully reduce underreporting.
Highlights
Cerebral palsy (PC) is associated with motor problems accompanied by disorders in cognition, communication and behavior, epilepsy episodes, and musculoskeletal problems
In regards of possible solutions to facilitate this assessment, 15% of the registers found brochures/flyers a useful tool to compile information about different methodologies, 84% suggested to create and design a guide/manual of procedures described step-by-step and 46% suggested a mobile app. It was mentioned by 92% that professional training about alternative methods of assessing nutritional status in children with high motor impairment would be helpful
In order to remove some of the barriers to the assessment of nutritional status, they mentioned the creation of an online platform with all of the equations involved in nutritional assessment, where data can be inserted and automatically calculate the measurements; one can create an educational program for healthcare professionals; and one can gather a team of high skilled professionals that visits all cerebral palsy (CP) centers in the country to evaluate and register all children
Summary
Cerebral palsy (PC) is associated with motor problems accompanied by disorders in cognition, communication and behavior, epilepsy episodes, and musculoskeletal problems. Nutritional status assessment (NSA) can be challenging in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Our aim was to assess the difficulties in NSA which are causing this underreport and to create solutions for registers and caregivers. A toolkit for HCP was created with the weight and height assessment methods described and other for caregivers to deal with common FP. Conclusions: There are several difficulties experienced by HCP that might be overcome with educational tools, such as a toolkit. This will facilitate nutritional assessment and intervention and hopefully reduce underreporting
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