%0 Journal Article
%T Factors Related to Psychosocial Quality of Life for Children with Cerebral Palsy
%A D. W. Tessier
%A J. L. Hefner
%A A. Newmeyer
%J International Journal of Pediatrics
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/204386
%X Background. Current health services interventions focus on the treatment of the musculoskeletal impairments of cerebral palsy (CP). The goal of this study was to explore whether the severity of physical symptoms correlates with psychosocial quality of life (QOL) among pediatric patients with CP. Methods. A sample of 53 caregivers of children with CP was surveyed and health status information was extracted from patient medical records. Descriptive analysis explored the association between the main outcome variable, psychosocial QOL (CP QOL-child), and patient demographics, comorbidity (e.g., visual, hearing and feeding impairments, language delays, and epilepsy), CP severity (GMFCS), and the receipt of family centered care (MPOC-20). Results. Child psychosocial QOL decreased with increasing comorbidity but was not associated with CP symptom severity or any measured demographic factors. Reporting high levels of family centered care (FCC) was associated with higher psychosocial QOL in univariate analysis but was not significant when controlling for comorbidities. Conclusion. There is no clear connection between symptom severity and psychosocial QOL in children with CP. Comorbidity however is strongly associated with psychosocial QOL. Focusing on reducing CP comorbidities could have a positive impact on psychosocial QOL. 1. Introduction Cerebral palsy (CP), with a prevalence of 1 in 278 children, is the most common childhood motor impairment [1]. The term ¡°cerebral palsy¡± describes a group of permanent disorders of the development of movement and posture attributed to nonprogressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain [2]. There are no specific treatments for the brain insults that lead to the motor dysfunction of CP. Instead, treatment is focused on a range of therapies (e.g., physiotherapy, surgery, medication) with the aim of enhancing a patient¡¯s overall quality of life by mitigating musculoskeletal impairments and pain [3, 4]. Health-related quality of life (QOL) is a subdomain of QOL that encompasses physical, mental, and social well-being [4¨C6]. For children with CP, health-related QOL has been increasingly positioned as an important outcome indictor [6, 7]. Research indicates that pediatric and adolescent patients with CP have impaired functional and psychosocial QOL when compared with their normative peers [8¨C10]. While traditional CP treatments have been associated with improvements to patients¡¯ functional quality of life, these treatments have had less impact on psychosocial QOL [3, 11, 12]. Specifically, previous
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijpedi/2014/204386/