[SP1-2E-5] Use of Alternative Therapy and Parental Responses in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Developing Country Perspective
Introduction: To describe the use of alternative therapies, socio-economic milieu and parental responses in children with cerebral palsy (CP) from a developing country
Methodology: Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study.
Study setting: Neurodevelopment clinic and rehabilitation center of a tertiary care hospital
Results: Of 201 children with CP, 39.8% were quadriplegic, 19.9% diplegic, 18.4% hemiplegic, 11.4% mixed, 8.5% dyskinetic and 2% were hypotonic. Majority (71%) were males. Mean age at first neurological symptom was 7.6 months (3days-18months); mean age at diagnosis was 11.4 months (6-24 months). Comorbid global developmental delay (75%), speech delay (59.7%), seizures (48.3%), squint (32.8%), visual (27.9%), hearing (16.9%) and refractive problems (13.9%) were noted.
Majority of mothers (59.7%) and fathers (58.2%) were educated below 12th standard. One-third (33.3%) families had income <5000 INR (~75 USD). Only 7.5% of the parents were familiar with the diagnosis. Their initial reactions at the time of diagnosis were “whether the condition will improve” (31.3 %) or “disease is due to fate” (19.4%); 96.5% were compliant to drugs and 70.7% were compliant to physiotherapy. Use of alternative therapy was reported in 47.8% such as ayurvedic (44.2%), homeopathic (30.5%), religious rituals (23.15%) and acupuncture (2.1%). However, majority of the parents (64.2%) did not observe any positive effect with alternating non-medical therapy; 52.6% parents found it useless and none of the parents recommended it further.
Conclusions: Use of alternative non-medical therapy is common in developing countries such as India. Proper counseling and parental awareness are needed to mitigate these and prevent unnecessary stress for parents.
Methodology: Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study.
Study setting: Neurodevelopment clinic and rehabilitation center of a tertiary care hospital
Results: Of 201 children with CP, 39.8% were quadriplegic, 19.9% diplegic, 18.4% hemiplegic, 11.4% mixed, 8.5% dyskinetic and 2% were hypotonic. Majority (71%) were males. Mean age at first neurological symptom was 7.6 months (3days-18months); mean age at diagnosis was 11.4 months (6-24 months). Comorbid global developmental delay (75%), speech delay (59.7%), seizures (48.3%), squint (32.8%), visual (27.9%), hearing (16.9%) and refractive problems (13.9%) were noted.
Majority of mothers (59.7%) and fathers (58.2%) were educated below 12th standard. One-third (33.3%) families had income <5000 INR (~75 USD). Only 7.5% of the parents were familiar with the diagnosis. Their initial reactions at the time of diagnosis were “whether the condition will improve” (31.3 %) or “disease is due to fate” (19.4%); 96.5% were compliant to drugs and 70.7% were compliant to physiotherapy. Use of alternative therapy was reported in 47.8% such as ayurvedic (44.2%), homeopathic (30.5%), religious rituals (23.15%) and acupuncture (2.1%). However, majority of the parents (64.2%) did not observe any positive effect with alternating non-medical therapy; 52.6% parents found it useless and none of the parents recommended it further.
Conclusions: Use of alternative non-medical therapy is common in developing countries such as India. Proper counseling and parental awareness are needed to mitigate these and prevent unnecessary stress for parents.