Family socioeconomic status and health-related quality of life in children with cerebral palsy: Assessing differences between clinical and healthy samples

Objective – The objective of this study was to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children with cerebral palsy (CP) in relation to socioeconomc status (SES) of family. Methods – The cross-sectional study included 75 children with CP between ages 5 and 18 years and their parents. The control group was formed by random selection by matching each patient with one or two healthy control participants. To evaluate the generic HRQoL in children with CP we used the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales which include both a parent proxy-report and a child self-report with age-appropriate versions. SES was determined using a classification system based on the parents’ job and educational level. Results – Lower-SES children with CP showed significant lower medians of total scores, physical health, psychosocial health, and social functioning HRQoL than lower SES control participants and, middle SES children with CP showed significant lower medians of total scores, physical health, psychosocial health, than middle SES control participants. Parental reports revealed significantly poorer HRQoL in lower SES children with CP in total scores, physical health, psychosocial health, social functioning, and school functioning than lower SES control participants. Also, the parental proxy reports for middle SES children with CP were significantly lower in total scores, physical health, psychosocial health, and social functioning than middle SES control participants. Conclusions – This study showed that low and middle SES children with CP have lower HRQoL than low and middle SES healthy children. Our results call for the creation of socialeconomic and psychological programs which might have beneficial effects for children and adolescents with CP and their families.