Effect of gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy on parental depression

Abstract

Background: Parents of CP children having many problems because CP children completely depend on their parents that can affect the parent’s behavior and mental level. Therefore, this study is to conduct to find correlation of gross motor function of CP children and stress anxiety and depression in their parents and after 6 months find out what change occur in level of stress anxiety and depression with change in gross motor function.

Objective: To investigate the association between gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy with levels of depression in their parents.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at the Helping Hand Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences in Mansehra with 126 children (aged up to 18) with cerebral palsy and their parents. GMFM 88 examined gross motor function, whereas DASS 42 assessed parental depression. The statistical analysis in IBM SPSS 22 included mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, Spearman correlation, and linear regression.

Results: The mean age of children was 6.76±3.92 years, and parents were 33.21±7.06 years. Spastic CP was prevalent in 89.7% of children. Significant correlations were found between GMFCS levels and parental depression, with higher GMFCS levels associated with increased depression. Regression analysis supported a significant relationship, indicating the potential predictive value of gross motor function in parental depression. Female parents exhibited a higher rate of depression compared to male parents.

Conclusion: This study provides a significant association between the severities of gross motor function in children with CP.

Key words: Depression, cerebral palsy, gross motor function.