Psycho-Social Quality of Life Among Children with Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is known to cause severe physical disability in children. Social, along with mental and physical wellness, constitute a subset of Quality Of Life (QOL) related to general health. Objective: To find out the psycho-social QOL among children with CP. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted at the department of Pediatrics Medicine, Sir Sadiq Abbasi Hospital, Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, Pakistan from March 2023 to September 2023. Children of either gender between 4-12 years and diagnosed cases of CP were included. Study information like age, gender, weight, area of residence and type of CP were noted. Psycho-social quality of life was assessed as per CP QOL-Child questionnaire. Results: In a total of 86 children with CP, the mean age was 7.64±2.63 years while 57 (66.3%) children were aged between 4 to 8 years. There were 64 (74.4%) male and 22 (25.6%) female children. The most common type of CP was spastic quadriplegia, noted in 29 (33.7%) children. The mean psychosocial QOL score was 4.93±1.90. High psychosocial QOL among children with CP was found in 25 (29.1%) patients, whereas there was low quality of life was in 61 (70.9%) children. Relatively younger age was associated with significantly low QOL (p=0.001). Urban place of liven was also associated with low QOL (p=0.001). Conclusions: CP affects psycho-social QOL in high proportion of children. Younger age, urban residential affiliation were found to be significant association with low QOL scores.