Risk Factors Associated with Cerebral Palsy in Children Born in Eastern and Northern Districts of Tehran

Background: Cerebral palsy is a group of non-progressive motor impairment syndromes caused by lesions of the brain arising early in development. In this study, we evaluated perinatal risk factors of children born in eastern and northern districts of Tehran city, when perinatal records were widely available. Methods: This was a case-control study performed on one to six year-old children living in Tehran, at health-care centers of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Asma Rehabilitation Center, over 12 months. Results: During the study period, 112 subjects in the case and 3465 in the control groups were studied. The main factors associated with cerebral palsy were (odds ratios, confidence interval): neonatal convulsion (81.35, 35.09-188.6), low Apgar score (<5) at 5 min or beyond (21.83, 13.13-36.26), low birth weight (5.83, 3.47-9.77), mother's complication during pregnancy (7.83, 4.23-14.50) and maternal age over 35 years (3.88, 2.03-7.42). Conclusion: Neonatal encephalopathy, low birth weight, and high risk pregnancy were the most powerful independent predictors of cerebral palsy in this population. The majority of infants with cerebral palsy were born at term; therefore, cerebral palsy is quantitatively mainly an issue of term infants.