You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original research
Risk of hospital-treated injury in children with cerebral palsy: a population-based cohort study
  1. Laura Määttänen1,2,3,
  2. Liisi Ripatti4,
  3. Päivi Rautava1,3,
  4. Mari Koivisto3,
  5. Leena Haataja5
  1. 1 Department of Public Health, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
  2. 2 Department of Paediatric Neurology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
  3. 3 Turku Clinical Research Centre, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
  4. 4 Department of Paediatric Surgery, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
  5. 5 Paediatric Research Centre, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  1. Correspondence to Dr Liisi Ripatti, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Turku University Hospital, Kiinamyllynkatu 4-8, Turku 20520, Finland; liisi.ripatti{at}tyks.fi

Abstract

Aim To study whether cerebral palsy (CP) increases the risk of hospital-treated injuries in children up to 13 years of age.

Methods A Finnish population-based cohort (n=328 903) of children born during 2001 to 2006 was followed up for hospital-treated injuries until the end of 2014 via linkage of nation-wide registers. The rate of first injury was compared in children with and without CP. The effect of CP type, gender, severe comorbidities (intellectual disability, epilepsy, hearing or visual impairment), and the type of injury was evaluated.

Results Children with CP had an increased risk of injury compared with children without CP (unadjusted HR: 1.2, 95% CI: 1.0 – 1.4, p=0.40). Girls with CP (n = 191) had a higher risk of injury compared with girls without CP (29% vs 22%, HR: 1.4, 95% CI: 1.1 to 1.8, p = 0.01). Any comorbidity increased the risk of injury (HR: 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1 to 2.2, p = 0.015) among children with CP. Children with CP had a higher risk of traumatic brain injury (HR: 1.7, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.4, p = 0.002) than children without CP.

Conclusion Girls with CP had the highest risk of hospital-treated injury. Children with CP are particularly prone to traumatic brain injuries.

  • cohort study
  • injury diagnosis
  • child
  • disability

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2019-043209

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors We have NOT included any figures or tables from another publication.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, number of the approval is TK-53-955-13.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No data are available.