Introduction and Aim:Cerebral Palsy (CP), is a group of permanent movement and posture disorders, not progressive but result in activity and participation limitations due to damage of immature brain. Visual, hearing, speech, swallowing, behavior, sensory problems and epilepsy may accompany the clinical picture of CP. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between comorbidities and physical and psychosocial quality of life (QoL) in children aged 5-13 years with mild and severe CP.

Materials and Methods:The population of descriptive study consisted of children with CP between 5-13 years and their families who received Cerebral Palsy and Pediatric Rehabilitation Unit, Hacettepe University and Special Education and Rehabilitation Centers in Ankara. The sample consisted of 209 children and their families from total 450 children, agreed to participate in the study between April 2017-2019. This study was supported by TUBITAK 1001, Hacettepe University Non-Interventional Clinical Research Ethics Committee (GO-14/451-11; GO-14/431-10). Sociodemographic characteristics of families, comorbidities of children, gross motor function levels and QoL scale (Child Health Questionnaire-Parent Form 50 /CHQ-PF-50) were analyzed during the study. The data were collected face-to-face by project assistants, PhD in the same field. CHQ-PF-50 was developed by Landgraf et al. for the 5-18 age group, and validity and reliability of the Turkish version of CHQ-PF-50 was conducted by Özdoğan et al.  SPSS program was used for analysis, children were separated with mild and severe according to functional level. Kruskal-Wallis and Man-Whitney-U tests were used.

Results:The mean age of children was 8.06±0.16 and 57.6% were male. 43.1% of them were evaluated as mild and 56.9% as severe CP. 43.1% of children had vision problem, 41.6% had speech problem, 18.6% had swallowing problem, 14.2% had incontinence, 11.8% had severe mental disability, 12.2% had behavioral impairments, 8.9% had hearing impairments and 7.8% had sensorial problems. While higher maternal education (p=0.035) and maternal imployment level (p=0.006) increased the QoL/physical heath in children with mild CP; epilepsy p=0.031), swallowing(p=0.039), behavioral (p=0.024) and sensory impairments (p=0.001) decreased. The QoL/psychosocial health was reduced in children with mild CP by behavioral(p=0.025) and sensory impairments (p=0.014). Swallowing problem(p=0.003), incontinence(p=0.036) and severe mental disability (p=0.031) decreased the QoL/physical health in severe CP.

Conclusion and Recommendations:Increasing maternal education and maternal imployment level has a positive effect on the physical health in children with mild CP. Comorbitidies in children with mild CP reduced physical and psychosocial QoL. Interventions to control comorbidities may beneficial to improve the QoL/physically and psychosocially in severe CP.

Keywords : Children, comorbidity, Cerebral palsy, Quality of life