Relationship between function and health-related quality of life of school-aged children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

[Purpose] To determine the correlation between function, measured by the functional independence measure for children (WeeFIM) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL), measured by the child health questionnaire (CHQ-PF28) for children with cerebral palsy (CP), and to find out which child and parent factors related with each of these measures. [Subjects] One hundred fifty-five school-aged children with CP (89 boys, 66 girls) and their mothers. [Methods] Two physical therapists evaluated function and HRQOL using the WeeFIM and the CHQ-PF28 individually through interviews with the mothers of the subjects. [Results] Severer GMFCS levels were associated with lower functional ability, physical and psychosocial quality of life. The correlation between total WeeFIM score and Physical Summary Score (PHS) was r=0.48. Social cognition correlated fairly well with Psychosocial Summary Score (PSS) (r=0.26). Epilepsy was significantly related with lower PHS, PSS, WeeFIM total score and all the subscale scores. GMFCS was related with all the scales except the PSS. [Conclusion] The WeeFIM and CHQ-PF28 appear to assess related but different constructs, so there is a need to incorporate complementary measures when evaluating function and HRQOL of children with CP. Child factors such as epilepsy and GMFCS were more associated with functional status and well-being of school-aged children with CP than parental factors in Korea.