Impact of an educational program on parental knowledge of cerebral palsy

Abstract

Parental knowledge of cerebral palsy is inadequate. A single-session educational program can significantly improve parental knowledge about many 'core basic issues' regarding cerebral palsy.

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“…This is line with the study of Karande et al conducted on parents of children newly diagnosed with CP, about 80.8% of the respondents are not aware of the cause of the condition before educational intervention [1], another study conducted by Arora, et al 2014 on parents of children with CP also indicated low or lack knowledge of CP before the educational intervention in about 74.6% of the participants [9]. After the educational intervention all respondents (100%) attributed the cause of CP to pregnancy abnormalities, this is similar to the study of Karande et al that showed improvement of the knowledge of participants on the cause of cerebral palsy, about 76.9% of the participants could correctly explain the cause of cerebral palsy [1]. A study by Arora, et al confirmed our finding that 90.6% of the participants were able to mention the possible causes of CP [9].…”

“…A study conducted by Karande et al contradicts the finding of the study that majority of the respondents 69.2% were able to mention few professionals involved in the management of CP [1] although the studies differ in respondents as the study involves parents of children with CP and the respondents in our study are pregnant women with no CP children. But post awareness result showed a lot of improvements to about 88.5% of the respondent were able to identify more medical practitioners in the management of CP which is similar to our finding in the study that about 94.6% and 81.1% of responses are physiotherapist and paeditricans respectively involved in management of CP.…”

“…It includes specialized instruction and related rehabilitation services which minimize the disabling effects of cerebral palsy and promote optimal development over time. [1][9] Appropriate planning is necessary to improve their quality of life (QoL) in different domains. [6] The management of CP is now taking a new dimension; it involves participation of family in the early intervention [12], thereby producing effective preventative and rehabilitative measures especially during perinatal period [13].…”

“…[9] The knowledge of the disease can be passed on to the parents through an educational intervention method from parents to parents, [14] or medical practitioners to parents [15], which in turn significantly improves parents/ caregivers' overall knowledge of cause, prognosis, and the necessary intervention early enough to prevent secondary complications. [1] Studies document the lack of adequate knowledge of parents with cerebral palsy [1][9] [16] and pregnant women with non CP children, despite the significance of their involvement in the management of cerebral palsy. [17] Hence, necessitating for educational intervention [16] [17].…”

“…Cerebral Palsy (CP) can be defined as an insult to the central nervous system in the early developing brain that produces a group of non-progressive disorders of movements and postures [1].The insult leading to CP may develop either during prenatal, perinatal or postnatal period with most common etiologic factors being prematurity, ischemia, hypoxemia, hyperbilirubinemia and trauma. [2]CP has the prevalence of about 2.11 per 100 live births globally, [3] [4]and manifestation of either monoplegia, diplegia, hemiplegia, triplegia, quadriplegia or double hemiplegia based on the topographic distributions of motor involvement that reflects direct area of brain affectation.…”