Profile of associated impairments at age 5 years in Australia by cerebral palsy subtype and Gross Motor Function Classification System level for birth years 1996 to 2005

Abstract

Aim: To describe the distribution of impairments among persons with cerebral palsy (CP) in a large Australian cohort.

Method: Records of persons on the Australian Cerebral Palsy Register (ACPR) (n=3466) born from 1996 to 2005 were reviewed to extract year of birth, sex, CP subtype, Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) level, and impairments in vision, hearing, speech, intellect, and epilepsy. The distributions of GMFCS levels and CP subtype were plotted, and the proportions of each level of impairment were tabulated and presented as stacked graphs within the GMFCS and CP subtype distributions.

Results: The proportions of persons with CP with each associated impairment increased with increasing GMFCS level. Compared with other spastic CP subtypes, individuals with spastic quadriplegia had higher frequencies of all associated impairments. Other than epilepsy, which was most prevalent in persons with spastic quadriplegia (53%), all impairments were most frequent in non-spastic CP subtypes. Hearing impairment was recorded for 21% of persons with dyskinesia whereas the hypotonic subtype had the highest prevalence of visual impairment (57%), intellectual impairment (90%), and speech impairment (95%).

Interpretation: Distributions of associated impairments across all GMFCS levels and CP subtypes in a large cohort are presented in formats suitable for clinical use and discussion with families.