Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
TURKISH JOURNAL OF PHYSIOTHERAPY REHABILITATION-FIZYOTERAPI REHABILITASYON, cilt.18, sa.2, ss.51-58, 2007 (ESCI)
Purpose: This study was planned to determine the problems of families of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and to investigate whether they had differed according to motor functional level. Material and methods: The study included 348 male and 212 female, totally 560 children with CP and their families. Group I included children in Level I, II, III of Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) and their families while Group II included Level IV and V of GMFCS and their families. Aetiology of CP, consanguinity between mother and father, age of diagnosis, clinical type, and extremity distribution of children were recorded from hospital files. Age of the mothers and the fathers, work status, educational status, number of children in the family, monthly income, living location, lack or existing social insurance were asked. The families were requested to fill a questionnaire about care of children, source of CP information, problems that the disabled children bring to family, problems while meeting the needs of children and emotional problems. Results: Families of Group II had more percentage of problems whom disabled children bring to family, had major difficulties in meeting the needs of disabled children, and emotional problems (p<0.05). Conclusion: It is a necessity to define the problems of families in order to maintain rehabilitation goals. We believe that investigation of children with CP and their families, determination of their needs, problems, and difficulties will guide rehabilitation and education of children with CP as well as social support for families.