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Health-Related Quality of Life and its Correlates in Children with Cerebral Palsy: An Exploratory Study

2011; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 24; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s10882-011-9265-x

1573-3580

Roberta Frontini, Carla Crespo, Carlos Carona, María Cristina Canavarro,

Infant Development and Preterm Care

Recent research has shown a growing interest in the assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in children and adolescents with chronic health conditions as a subjective health outcome. However, HRQol in the pediatric population with cerebral palsy (CP) is still understudied, with scarce research assessing self-reported HRQoL and its links with other psychological variables. The present research examined self-reported HRQoL in 64 Portuguese children and adolescents with CP. Results showed that higher HRQoL (generic and specific to chronic health conditions) was significantly related to lower levels of psychopathological symptoms, higher levels of prosocial behavior and a lower need for social activities. Gender moderated the link between prosocial behavior and HRQoL (specific to chronic conditions), which was significant for girls but not for boys. Finally, the need for social activities mediated the associations between psychopathology symptoms and both measures of HRQoL.