Mothers’ knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices towards their Children with Cerebral Palsy at Assiut City, Egypt

Background: Cerebral palsy is a group of neurological disorders caused by damage in the developing brain that affect the brain‟s ability to control movement and maintain posture and balance. Aim of the study: To assess mothers‟ knowledge, attitudes, and reported practices towards their children with cerebral palsy at Assiut city, Egypt. Setting: The study was carried out in Nour Al-Hayat center for rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy, Kian rehabilitation center and Comprehensive rehabilitation center. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used in this study. The total number of sample was 210 mothers. Tools of the study: Structured interviewing questionnaire was consisted of four tools for data collection. First tool included socioeconomic scale, characteristics of mothers and their children. Second tool: Mothers‟ knowledge about CP. Third tool: Mothers‟ attitude scale. Fourth tool: Mothers‟ reported practices. Results: One-third of mothers their ages were ≥ 35 years and two-fifths of them had secondary and intermediate institute education. 59.5% of mothers had poor knowledge, 40.5% had neutral attitude and 78.1% of them had unsatisfactory reported practices. Conclusion: There were statistical significant differences between mothers' mothers' socio-demographic characteristics and their total knowledge, attitudes and reported practices regarding care of their children with cerebral palsy. Also, there was positive correlation between knowledge and reported practices scores. Recommendation: Development of an educational and training program should be conducted for mothers to improve their knowledge and practices in caring for their children with CP.