Autorrelato de Qualidade de Vida de Adolescentes com Paralisia Cerebral

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is the major cause of motor impairment in childhood. The importance of evaluating the quality of life during adolescence, from the selfperception perspective, relies on it being a singular stage of life, marked by numerous physical and emotional transformations in young people with cerebral palsy, also it is a rarely addressed subject in literature. This perspective promotes the empowerment of this population, as they actively participate in the process of constructing information about their health condition. This is a descriptive crosssectional study, with the objective to evaluate the quality of life of adolescents with cerebral palsy. The dependent variable was the quality of life and the independent variables were: age group; to be enrolled in school; the nature of the school; the distribution of motor involvement; the GMFCS and to have gait.The instrument used to evaluate the quality of life was PedsQL 3.0, a specific module for cerebral palsy. The sample consisted of 101 adolescents with cerebral palsy who attended rehabilitation activities in philanthropic and / or public institutions in the city of Goiania-GO. The results showed that the majority of adolescents were males (57.4%); (77.2%), spastic (61.4%) and enrolled in a regular school (69.6%). The PedsQL domains of highest scores were "Pain" followed by "Daily activities", while those with lower scores were "Fatigue" and "School activities". Younger adolescents, from 10 to 14 years old, presented higher quality of life scores in the "movement and balance", "feeding" and “speech and communication” domains. Individuals who were enrolled in school showed higher scores for the domains "school activities" "movement and balance".Regular school students showed higher scores for "feeding" and "speech and communication" domains.Diplegic adolescents showed higher scores for the domains "daily activity" and "feeding". There was a difference in the quality of life of GMFCS individuals with higher scores for level I in relation to level IV, for the domain "daily activities". There was difference for those with higher scores for the domains of "daily activities" and "movement and balance".It was concluded that adolescents up to the age of 14, who studied in a regular school, that had gait, and were classified in level I, presented a better quality of life. These findings point to a need of new actions, aimed to the specific needs of this population.