Does hip displacement influence health-related quality of life in children with cerebral palsy?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association of hip lateralisation with health-related quality of life (HRQL) in children with cerebral palsy (CP) using the Caregiver Priorities and Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities (CPCHILD(®)) questionnaire. METHODS: We assessed n = 34 patients (mean age: 10.2 years, SD: 4.7 years; female: n = 16) with bilateral CP and Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) Level III-V using the CPCHILD(®) questionnaire. Hip lateralisation was measured by Reimer`s migration percentage (MP). RESULTS: There was an association between both, MP and GMFCS with CPCHILD(®) total score. Stratified analyses did not suggest interaction of the association between MP and CPCHILD(®) total score by GMFCS level. After adjustment for GMFCS level, we found a significant linear decrease of CPCHILD(®) total score of -0.188 points by 1% increment in MP. CONCLUSIONS: There was an association between MP and HRQL, which could not be explained by the GMFCS level.

Gestational weight gain and body mass index in children: results from three german cohort studies.

INTRODUCTION: Previous studies suggested potential priming effects of gestational weight gain (GWG) on offspring's body composition in later life. However, consistency of these effects in normal weight, overweight and obese mothers is less clear. METHODS: We combined the individual data of three German cohorts and assessed associations of total and excessive GWG (as defined by criteria of the Institute of Medicine) with offspring's mean body mass index (BMI) standard deviation scores (SDS) and overweight at the age of 5-6 years (total: n = 6,254). Quantile regression was used to examine potentially different effects on different parts of the BMI SDS distribution. All models were adjusted for birth weight, maternal age and maternal smoking during pregnancy and stratified by maternal pre-pregnancy weight status. RESULTS: In adjusted models, positive associations of total and excessive GWG with mean BMI SDS and overweight were observed only in children of non- overweight mothers. For example, excessive GWG was associated with a mean increase of 0.08 (95% CI: 0.01, 0.15) units of BMI SDS (0.13 (0.02, 0.24) kg/m(2) of 'real' BMI) in children of normal-weight mothers. The effects of total and excessive GWG on BMI SDS increased for higher- BMI children of normal-weight mothers. DISCUSSION: Increased GWG is likely to be associated with overweight in offspring of non-overweight mothers.