Congenital Cerebral Palsy, Child Sex and Parent Cardiovascular Risk

Abstract

ObjectiveGenes associated with cardiovascular disease may also be risk factors for congenital cerebral palsy (CP) and these associations may be modified by sex, since there is an increased risk of CP in male children. We investigated the association between CP of the child with cardiovascular disease in parents, taking sex of the child into consideration.MethodsAll parents of non-adopted singletons born in Denmark between 1973 and 2003 were included. Parents of a child with CP, confirmed by the Danish National CP registry, were considered exposed. Cox proportional hazards regressions were used to model risk of cardiovascular outcomes for exposed parents compared to all other parents beginning at the child’s 10th birthday.ResultsWe identified 733,730 mothers and 666,652 fathers among whom 1,592 and 1,484, respectively, had a child with CP. The mean age for mothers at end of follow up was 50±8 years. After adjustment for maternal age, parental education, child’s sex, child’s residence, child being small for gestational age and maternal hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, mothers of CP male children had an excess risk of cardiovascular disease (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.16-2.00), attributable mostly to an increased incidence of hypertension and cerebrovascular disease. After additional adjustment for preterm birth, the association was markedly attenuated for cardiovascular disease (1.34, 95%CI: 1.02 - 1.76), became nonsignificant for hypertension, but remained significant for cerebrovascular disease (HR: 2.73, 95% CI: 1.45- 5.12). There was no increased risk of cardiovascular events in mothers of female CP children, or fathers of CP children of any sex.ConclusionsWomen that have a male child with CP are at increased risk for premature cardiovascular disease. Part of this association may be related to risk factors for preterm births.

Systematic Review of Cerebral Palsy Registries/Surveillance Groups: Relationships between Registry Characteristics and Knowledge Dissemination

“…Twenty-one dual aim articles shared this aim (Planning) with the Resource for CP Research aim (Table S8) and emphasized a variety of health [186–191] and hip issues [192–195], planning for environmental and social needs [196–199] equipment [200–202] financial planning [203,204] predicting outcome [205] and mother’s health [206]. Additional two-aim articles have been previously discussed under Prevention (n=2) and Surveillance (n=1).…”