Prevalence of cerebral palsy: Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, three sites, United States, 2004.

BACKGROUND Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of motor disability in children and an important public health issue in the United States. The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network is a multisite program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine trends in the prevalence of children with developmental disabilities, including CP, in the United States. This report describes population-based estimates of CP prevalence among 8-year-old children in three sites in the United States. METHODS The ADDM Network conducted surveillance of CP among 8-year-old children living in north central Alabama, metropolitan Atlanta, and south central Wisconsin in 2004 (N = 68,272). This multisite collaboration involved the retrospective collection, linking, and analysis of data from multiple service providers and the population census estimates. RESULTS The average prevalence of CP in 2004 across the three sites was 3.3 per 1,000 (95% confidence interval, 2.9-3.8). The prevalence was significantly higher in boys than in girls overall (male/female ratio, 1.4:1). The most common subtype across all three sites was spastic CP, ranging from 85% in Georgia to 89% in Alabama and Wisconsin. CONCLUSIONS Ongoing, systematic, population-based surveillance in different areas of the United States is needed to describe and monitor CP prevalence. In addition, enhancing the surveillance system to include information about functional abilities is needed to better understand the public health impact of CP and strategies for improving quality of life and participation in activities at home and in the community.

[1]  Amanda Honeycutt,et al.  Economic costs associated with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, and vision impairment--United States, 2003. , 2004, MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report.

[2]  C. Cans.  Surveillance of cerebral palsy in Europe: a collaboration of cerebral palsy surveys and registers , 2000, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[3]  Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders--autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, six sites, United States, 2000. , 2007, Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Surveillance summaries.

[4]  Russell S. Kirby,et al.  Prevalence of Cerebral Palsy in 8-Year-Old Children in Three Areas of the United States in 2002: A Multisite Collaboration , 2008, Pediatrics.

[5]  B. Dan,et al.  A report: the definition and classification of cerebral palsy April 2006 , 2007, Developmental medicine and child neurology. Supplement.

[6]  Kim Van Naarden Braun,et al.  Prevalence of four developmental disabilities among children aged 8 years--Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program, 1996 and 2000. , 2006, Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Surveillance summaries.

[7]  J. Ellenberg,et al.  Children who "outgrew' cerebral palsy. , 1982, Pediatrics.

[8]  C. Rice,et al.  Prevalence of autism in a US metropolitan area. , 2003, JAMA.

[9]  Russell S Kirby,et al.  A public health collaboration for the surveillance of autism spectrum disorders. , 2007, Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology.

[10]  Peter Rosenbaum,et al.  The Definition and Classification of Cerebral Palsy: Are We Any Further Ahead in 2006? , 2006 .

[11]  S. Selvin.  Statistical Power and Sample Size Calculations , 2004 .

[12]  Ting Hong,et al.  The descriptive epidemiology of cerebral palsy. , 2006, Clinics in perinatology.

[13]  M. Yeargin-Allsopp,et al.  A multiple-source method for studying the prevalence of developmental disabilities in children: the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Study. , 1992, Pediatrics.