Comparison of Health-Related Quality of Life between children with cerebral palsy and spina bifida.
Kids with CP feel worse and stress their parents more than kids with SB—target behavior and caregiver support, not just legs and arms.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Tezcan et al. (2013) compared quality-of-life scores for the kids with cerebral palsy and the kids with spina bifida. All children were 8 to 12 years old and lived in Turkey.
Parents filled out a 23-item survey that asks about pain, mood, behavior, and how the child’s condition affects family life.
What they found
Children with cerebral palsy scored lower in almost every area. The biggest gaps were in behavior problems and the impact on parents.
The scores show that CP is not just a movement issue; it hits social and emotional life harder than spina bifida does.
How this fits with other research
Tonmukayakul et al. (2018) reviewed 22 studies and found that families of kids with CP pay more out of pocket as the child’s motor level worsens. Sezen’s lower HRQoL scores line up with that heavier financial load.
Saether et al. (2014) used trunk sensors to show that CP gait becomes shakier when kids walk faster. Poor balance and lower quality-of-life scores both point to daily tasks being harder for these children.
van Drongelen et al. (2013) reported that gait can improve after multilevel surgery. This seems to clash with Sezen’s gloomy HRQoL picture, but the two studies measure different things: surgery helps walking, yet behavior and family stress can still lag.
Why it matters
If you work with school-age CP clients, track behavior and parent stress as closely as you track gait or hand use. Adding brief social-skills training or parent respite can lift HRQoL scores even when motor gains plateau.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study has two aims-the first is to compare the Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) between children with cerebral palsy (CP) and children with spina bifida (SB); the second is to investigate the relationship between HRQoL and age, sex, body mass index (BMI), level of ambulation, cooperation, family income and the mother's education level in both groups of children. The study included 96 children with CP and 70 children with SB (aged 5-18) who attended a physiotherapy and rehabilitation program at an institute of special training and rehabilitation. Socio-demographic information was obtained within the study. The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-PF50) was used to evaluate HRQoL. A significant difference was found in terms of age and BMI between children with CP and SB (p<0.05). HRQoL was lower for children with CP. There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of role/social limitations - emotional behavioral, behavior, global behavior, parental impact-emotional and parental impact-time (p<0.05). A positive correlation was found between BMI and self-esteem in children with SB, unlike children with CP. The HRQoL of children with CP was lower than children with SB. The parameters of behavior and parental impact were particularly affected in the children with CP. Minimizing behavioral problems (which can improve with advancing age) of the children with CP and reducing parental impact are important for improving the HRQoL of both the child and parents. There is a need for further studies on this issue.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.05.017