Quality of life in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Cerebral palsy refers to a non-progressive brain disorder that affects the development of brain in developing infant and reduces the quality of life. Quality of life (QOL) is assessed using the CPQOL tool. Objectives: To assess the quality of life of children with CP. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, Islamabad during Oct-2022 to Mar-2023. The sample was raised using slovin’s formula and non-probability convenient sampling technique was used. Data were collected using standard CP-QOL tool. All types of CP diagnosed cases both gender, presence of a caregiver and an age range of 4 to 12 years were included. Patients with non-availability of a caregiver and presence of any other illness not associated with CP were excluded. Results: Out of 129 participants, 105 were included on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The mean ± SD of patients overall score came out to be 46.83 ±9.75. CPQOL score of males were 47.36±9.96 and of female was 46.19±9.56. CPQOL score of age 4-6years was 45.12±10.58, 7-9 years was 47.70±9.15 and 10-12 years was 49.21±8.54 while overall CPQOL score of children with diplegic CP was 48.38±9.11, hemiplegic CP was 48.66±7.74, quadriplegic CP was 37.92±11.16. Conclusions: study showed that among both genders, females had poor QoL than males. This study also concluded that quadriplegic children had poor QoL than any other types of cerebral palsy. The overall status of QoL of children having Cerebral Palsy was low.