The quality of life in children with cerebral palsy according to their personal and parents' report

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of age, gender and socioeconomic status of family on the quality of life related to the health of children with cerebral palsy, according to the assessment of children themselves and one of the parents. Cross-sectional study included 76 children with cerebral palsy, with median age of 8.85, and 76 parents. The specific questionnaire, PedsQLTM Module cerebral palsy, Version 3.0, which includes age-adjusted questionnaire for children and a questionnaire for parents, was used to assess the quality of life with regard to the health of children with cerebral palsy. This research has shown that the quality of life of children with cerebral palsy, according to their own assessment, is not significantly worse than the age and gender in the studied domains. In relation to socioeconomic status of the family, children from families with medial socioeconomic status had significantly lower quality of life (p=0.0114) in the field of nutrition, than the group with a low socioeconomic status. According to the parents' assessment, health-related quality of life of children with cerebral palsy was not significantly different with respect to age, sex and socioeconomic status of the family. By assessing the quality of life we obtained information regarding important issues and subjective difficulties faced by children with cerebral palsy in everyday life.