Maternal and foetal risk factors of cerebral palsy among Iraqi children. A case control study

Background: The importance of studying cerebral palsy comes from the fact that, this disorder imposes huge burden families psychologically, emotionally, financially and socially. Moreover, it imposes a major burden on the National Health System because it is simply a chronic disorder, which needs a continuous care and multiple financial resources. At the same time, it needs collaborative efforts and team work between many parties and organizations for a good management and rehabilitation. In Iraq, risk factors of cerebral palsy have not been explored before. Our study objective was to measure the association between, maternal factors, foetal and early neonatal factors, and occurrence of cerebral palsy among Iraqi children. Postnatal risk factors of cerebral palsy were excluded in our study. Methods: We did a retrospective case-control study in Baghdad-Iraq. The place of study was The Central hospital of Children of Baghdad. Cases and controls were fully investtigated (retrospectively) for the risk factors of cerebral palsy using a self-administered questionnaire. The sample size was 300. Number of cases in our study was 100 while the number of controls in our study was 200. Results and conclusion: 84% of the mothers of Cerebral Palsy children were employed compared to 49% of the mothers of normal children who were employed (P value 0.00). After using a multiple logistic regression model, the final adjusted odd ratios included 6 variables which were, employment of mother (OR 8.05, 95% CI 0.98 - 6.62), Primigravida(OR 0.24, 95% CI 0.10 - 0.60), gender of the child(OR 0.15, 95% CI 0.04 - 0.51 ), asphyxia (OR 10.58, 95% CI 3.59 - 31.21), hypoglycemia (OR 40.99, 95% CI 6.93 - 242.27) and hypocalcaemia (OR 27.91, 95% CI 2.04 - 380.96). Our study came to a conclusion that neonatal asphyxia, hypoglycemia and hypocalcaemia were still the major risk factors for cerebral palsy In Iraq.