Physical Health and Socioeconomic Status in Ambulatory Adults With Bilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) tends to influence an individual's access to health care. It is commonly assumed that a poorer SES is associated with a weaker physical health status, especially in disadvantaged populations such as people with cerebral palsy (CP). However, to our knowledge, no study has looked at this assumption. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe and compare the physical health status of ambulant adults with bilateral CP with different SES backgrounds. In addition, the physical health status of the ambulatory adults with CP was compared to well-matched, typically developing adults. Twenty-eight ambulatory adults with CP (gross motor functional classification system Level I/II/III: <i>n</i> = 11/12/5; SES low/middle/high: <i>n</i> = 10/9/9), and 28 matched typically developing adults were recruited for this study. No differences were observed between adults with CP from different SES backgrounds. Differences in physical health status between typically developing adults and ambulatory adults with CP in all SES backgrounds were found in passive range of motion (<i>p</i> < 0.05), muscle strength (<i>p</i> < 0.001), selectivity (<i>p</i> < 0.001), and muscle tone (<i>p</i> < 0.001) and balance (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The main finding of this study is that physical health status did not differ between ambulatory adults with CP from different SES backgrounds. This finding shows that SES does not always directly impact physical health status in ambulatory adults with CP and highlights the importance of an individual approach. Future research should determine the impact of SES on nonambulatory adults with CP.