Children with cerebral palsy (CP) and their families often make strong demands
on diagnostic, therapeutic, technical and social facilities. Prevalence estimates are
needed to improve treatment and services. As recent Dutch data are not available, the
present study aimed to assess the population prevalence of CP in the Netherlands. A
representative Dutch area with 1.2 million inhabitants of which 172,000 were born
between 1977 and 1988 was studied. To ascertain the children with CP from these
birth years, medical practices (such as rehabilitation centres, paediatric and child
neurological departments) were consecutively asked to contact their (supposed) CP
cases. Next, a parents’ organisation and finally regional news media assisted in the
ascertainment. In total, 170 ‘supposed’ CP cases underwent an expert examination.
Of these 170, 127 children proved to be definite CP-cases, yielding a ‘crude’ average
prevalence of 0.74 per 1000 inhabitants (95% CI: 0.61–0.87). Under-ascertainment
was recognised and quantified. Accordingly, the population prevalence of CP
over the birth year period 1977–1988 was calculated as 1.51 per 1000 inhabitants
(average over the 12 birth years). The calculated CP prevalence rose significantly
over time: from 0.77 (1977–1979) to 2.44 (1986–1988). This trend is in accordance
with other studies.http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/30655/111019_Wichers%2C%20Marc%20Jan_Bewerkt.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment