Abstract

BackgroundCerebral palsy (CP) is considered as the main cause of severe physical impairment and malnutrition in children. This cross-sectional study intended to survey the nutritional status of children cerebral palsy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.MethodsWe examined 74 children (age: 1–10 yrs) with CP, who attended Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Humanitarian City (SBAHC), Riyadh Saudi Arabia. Data on age, general demographics, nutritional status, and dietary intake were collected. A child was considered underweight, wasted, stunted or thin if the standard deviation scores for his/her weight for age, weight for height, height for age and body mass index for age were ≤ −2.0 standard deviation (SD) using WHO growth standards. Multivariable logistic regression identified the factors associated with nutritional indicators.ResultsMore than half (56.4%) of the children with cerebral palsy were malnourished as they had z-score below <−2 SD in at least one of the four indicators. Thinness (50%) was the most common form of malnutrition, followed by underweight, stunting, and wasting. Arm anthropometrics gave similar results on the percent number of malnourished children. Factors that were independently associated with malnutrition with an adjusted OR (aOR) were as follow: age ≤ 5 yrs. (aOR: 4.29); presence of cognitive impairment (aOR: 4.13); presence of anemia (aOR: 3.41) and inadequate energy intake (aOR: 4.86) (p, for all trends <0.05).ConclusionChildren with cerebral palsy of the current study have impaired growth and nutritional status as assessed by all four common nutritional status indicators. Further large-scale community-based studies for in-depth evaluation of nutritional status and growth patterns in children with CP are needed.

Highlights

  • Cerebral palsy (CP) is considered as the main cause of severe physical impairment and malnutrition in children

  • We initially included a total of 101 children with CP who visited Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Humanitarian City (SBAHC), Riyadh Saudi Arabia

  • Our findings suggest that impaired nutritional status was substantially prevalent in CP children participated in this study

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Summary

Introduction

Cerebral palsy (CP) is considered as the main cause of severe physical impairment and malnutrition in children. This cross-sectional study intended to survey the nutritional status of children cerebral palsy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Cerebral palsy (CP) has been recognized as one of the major causes of physical disability in children worldwide [1,2,3]. Nutritional status is significantly affected in children with CP [1, 2, 6, 7]. The associated comorbidities include growth abnormalities, feeding complications, communication disorders, mental obstruction, seizure disorders, and auditory and visual deficiency [8, 9].

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