Association of Functional Ability with Nutritional status among Children with Cerebral Palsy

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common physical disability in childhood. Children with CP are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition. Objective: To find out the association between functional ability and nutritional status in children with CP attending in a tertiary care hospital in Bangladesh. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study on 127 children (aged 18 months to12years) with a diagnosis of CP who were attending outpatient and inpatient department of National Institute of Neurosciences & Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh (J2020–2020). Functional ability was assessed by standard CP classification systems (GMFCS,MACS, CFCS, EDACS, Level I through level V).Nutritional status was evaluated and classified according to the WHO growth charts. To find out the association, Spearmann-rho analysis were done. Results: Fifty one percent were found underweight, 67.7% were stunted and 31.5% were wasted. Among them, severe underweight, severe stunting and severe wasting were found in 21.3%,41.7% and 11.8% cases respectively. Severe thinness measured by BMI was found in 81.1% cases..A significant negative association was found between weight for height, weight for age, BMI and functional level measured by GMFCS , MACS,CFCS and EDACS (P value <0.05 to<0.001) but no significant negative association was found between height for age and functional level measured by GMFCS ,MACS. Conclusion: Stunting and wasting are more common among pediatric patients with CP. In our study stunting was more prevalent. We found significant negative association between functional level and nutritional status .
Keywords: Cerebral Palsy, Nutritional status, Functional ability