Prevalence, identification, and interference of pain in young children with cerebral palsy: a population-based study

Abstract

Objective: To explore the presence of pain, how pain was addressed by physicians and parents, and how pain affected everyday life in young children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: Children with CP, aged 5-10 years, participated in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected from medical records spanning a period of two years and by a standardized parental interview that included six structured questions and the Pain Interference Index.

Exploring sleep problems in young children with cerebral palsy - A population-based study

“…Pain was highly correlated to sleep problems in our group of children [21]. Similar results have previously been described where the pain was identified as being the strongest contributing factor for sleep problems in children aged 1e16 years with different kinds of physical disabilities [10].…”

“…The study was explorative and cross-sectional, with a population-based inclusion of children with CP. The present report was part of a larger data collection concerning children with CP and the presence of pain, sleep, and additional comorbidities [21].…”

“…Pain, specifically investigated in an earlier report for this population, was present in 52% (49/95) of the children, and in 80% (39/49) of the children with pain, the parents reported that night-time sleep was negatively affected by pain. Parents had given analgesics (prescribed or over the counter, or both) in 59% (29/49) of the children [21]. In these 29 children, the frequency of analgesics given during the last two weeks varied.…”

Postural asymmetries, pain, and ability to change position of children with cerebral palsy in sitting and supine: a cross-sectional study

“…Further, we found a strong association between pain and postural asymmetries, with children with severe postural asymmetries being twice as likely to have pain as any other children. It is vital that pain is addressed possibly through the prevention or management of postural asymmetries, as it is well recognized that pain has a negative impact on both quality of life [18,30,37] and participation in activities of daily living [14,17,29]. Further studies are required to determine optimum postural interventions to pre-emptively manage pain for these children.…”

“…Pain increases with age and is more frequently located in the feet in children at Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels I-II and in the hips and spine in children at GMFCS levels IV-V [13]. Pain can lead to reduced engagement in everyday life [13][14][15][16], especially school work, sleep [13,17], and quality of life [18], including mental health [19].…”