Influence of socio- demographic factors on cerebral palsy among children

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is a group of disorders that affect movement and muscle tone or posture. It is caused by damagethat occurs to the immature, developing brain, most often before birth. The present study investigated the influence ofsocio-demographic factors like family type, family size, socio-economic status, and religion on cerebral palsy amongchildren in Dharwad taluk during 2021-22. The sample size was 164 children of 6 to 16 years, on which 82 were cerebralpalsy and 82 were typical children matched with cerebral palsy children. A descriptive matched pair case control design wasused. Self- structured questionnaire and Agarwal’s socio-economic status scale was used for data collection. The result ofthe study revealed that, the incidence of cerebral palsy was high among males (67.10%) than females (32.90%) also firstborn (56.10%) had more risk than later born (43.90%). Majority of families were (84.10%) nuclear with medium size(56.90%). The incidence of cerebral palsy was high among low socio-economic status hence, found a strongassociationbetween cerebral palsy and socio-economic status. Risk factors for cerebral palsy among children when compared tomedium and high socio-economic status