Live births with cerebral palsy at a tertiary maternity hospital: incidence and associated risk factors over a 17-year period

Abstract

The aim of this retrospective study was to establish the incidence and associated risk factors for cerebral palsy (CP) at a tertiary maternity hospital in the UK between 2000–2016. We identified CP patients from our electronic coding system using ICD codes. Multiple independent variables for all live births born during this period were included in a univariate and multivariate logistic regression (LR) to identify associations between these and CP. We identified 130 CP children out of 87318 live births. Univariate LR determined male sex, birth weight <2500 g, gestational age of ≤36 weeks, Small-for-gestational-age, 1-and 5-minute Apgar score <9, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission, multiple births, breech, emergency Caesarean section and delivery between 16.00–20.00 as significant risk factors. In the multivariate LG male sex, 1-minute Apgar <9, 5-minute Apgar <5 and admission to NICU remained as significant risk factors. The risk for delivery between 16.00–19.59 was nearly significant. There was a significant association between NICU admission and moderate-severe CP. Our CP incidence of 0.149% is at the lower end of the incidence spectrum of international comparisons.

Impact Statement

• What is already known on this subject? The historic reported incidence of cerebral palsy (CP) ranges from 1.1 to 3.6 cases per 1000 live births, with birth weight <2500g, birth <28 weeks of gestation, Apgar scores ≤4 and male sex having been associated with an increased incidence.

• What do the results of this study add? This is a large series of live births from a tertiary maternity hospital with a comparative low CP incidence of 0.149%, despite the hospital dealing with many complex pregnancies and deliveries. We identified that already an Apgar score of <9 at 1 minute (significant) and births between 16.00–20.00 (non-significant) were associated with an increased risk to develop CP but not with a specific day of the week.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or future research? Our significant association between a 1-minute Apgar score of <9 and CP stresses the importance of immediate efficient resuscitation already for babies with a 1-minute score as high as 8. The increased CP risk for deliveries between 16.00–19.59 may be linked to staffing issues and needs further exploration.

What this paper adds

• New data from a single maternity hospital

• Analysis of risk factors

• GMFCS distribution

Keywords:

• Cerebral palsy
• GMFCS
• apgar score

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Viktoria Gal for her help finding the articles listed in the references.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The project was self-funded.