[Survival of children born with cerebral palsy. Children born 1971-1986]

Since 1967, children with cerebral palsy in Eastern Denmark have been registered in the Danish Cerebral Palsy Registry. We wanted to investigate the survival of Danish patients with cerebral palsy and examine different factors that influence on survival. We also compared the survival rate with that of the background population.

All patients in the Cerebral Palsy Register, born between 1971 and 1986, were included in our study cohort. We examined the influence of the following factors on the survival of persons with cerebral palsy: sex, epilepsy, type of cerebral palsy, mental retardation, functional disability, birth year, and birth weight. Each factor was tested with Cox regression.

Seventy-seven of the 1093 persons included (7%), died before September 1997. Our study showed that survival was associated with the type of cerebral palsy, epilepsy, mental retardation, and the degree of functional disability. Surprisingly, birth year and birth weight had no influence on survival. Persons with cerebral palsy had a lower survival rate than the background population. However, there was no significant difference between cerebral palsy persons with walking abilities, and the background population.

Compared to earlier studies, the survival rate seems to have improved. The Danish cerebral palsy patients had a survival as good as, and maybe even better, than that of cerebral palsy patients from other countries. Persons with low functional disabilities had a survival rate comparable to that of the background population, a finding that may be relevant in regard to life insurance.