The nutritional state of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy is associated with oral motor dysfunction and social conditions: a cross sectional study

• Published in: BMC neurology Vol. 16; no. 55; p. 55
• Main Authors: Pinto, Vanessa Vieira, Alves, Levy Anderson César, Mendes, Fausto M, Ciamponi, Ana Lídia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 26.04.2016; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Advantages; Body mass index; Body weight; Care and treatment; Case-Control Studies; Cerebral palsy; Cerebral Palsy - complications; Cerebral Palsy - physiopathology; Chewing; Child; Children; Children & youth; Complications and side effects; Cooperation; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Male; Malnutrition; Motor task performance; Movement Disorders - complications; Movement Disorders - physiopathology; Nutrition; Nutritional Status; Obesity; Observational studies; Overweight; Paralysis; Patients; Prevalence; Quality of life; Socioeconomic Factors; Statistical analysis; Studies; Swallowing; Teenagers; United States > US; Cerebral palsy; Oral motor function; Children; Nutrition
• ISSN: 1471-2377; 1471-2377
• DOI: 10.1186/s12883-016-0573-8

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the main cause of severe physical impairment during childhood and has commonly shown oral motor association. It has been considered as the main cause of the high prevalence of problems in children's nutrition. Respiration, chewing, swallowing, speaking and facial expressionare part of the orofacial motor functions and when affected they can interfere in children's well-being. The aim of this study was to correlate two methods of orofacial motor evaluation, analyze the influence of orofacial motor functional impairment on the nutritional status of children and adolescents with CP, and the association between socioeconomic factors. Seventy children and adolescents with CP were selected, age range 6-16 years and following the exclusion criteria previously determined; 129 normoreactive children (control group), sex and age-matched to patients with CP. For the orofacial motor analysis two evaluation instruments were applied, the "Oral Motor Assessment Scale" (OMAS) and "Nordic Orofacial Test-Screening" (NOT-S). The anthropometric evaluation was based on the World Health Organization (WHO) and followed the criteria recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. There was statistically significant correlation between the oral motor methods of evaluation (r = -0.439, p < 0.0001). Concerning the nutritional status evaluation, being overweight was associated with dystonic and mixed CP forms variables (p = 0.034), mother with no partnership (p = 0.045) and mild oral motor impairment (p = 0.028). It could be concluded that, the weight's gain by children and adolescents might be favored by a better functional oral motor performance and social factors.