Musculoskeletal disorders in primary caregivers of children with cerebral palsy in Center for Rehabilitation of Paralyzed.

Abstract

Background: The primary care givers are the ones who take care of the child with CP like their mothers, grandmothers, aunties or aayas. Musculoskeletal disorders can be of various types such as neck pain, shoulder pain, elbow pain, wrist/ hand pain, upper back pain, low back pain, hip pain, knee pain and ankle pain. The children with CP may need complete assistance in their ADLs like eating, changing clothes, bathing, toileting, changing positions, walking and even standing needing permanent assistance by their primary caregivers significantly causing the musculoskeletal disorders to the caregivers. Objectives: To find out the presence, causes and types of MSDs in primary caregivers of the cerebral palsy children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done. The primary caregivers of CP children at William & Marie Taylor School and others coming for the treatment at pediatric (IP & OP) department of CRP, Savar were the study population. There were 101 participants who performed face to face data collection procedures for CSI, Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire and Socio-demographic Questionnaire. Results: It was found that most of the primary care givers of children with CP were their mothers (100%) which show that likely to the Asian culture the children are primarily cared by the female members of their family. The participants were mostly from Islamic religion (97%) having the system of consanguineous marriage and their related genetic causes. Most of the participants reside at rural part (59%) of the country. Most of these participants were found to have wrist/ hand disorders (77.3%). As mothers of children with CP are considered to be their primary caregivers and spend most of the time with them so they are mostly affected physically and psychologically. Conclusion: Musculoskeletal disorders were commonly seen in primary caregivers of CP child related to the care and services provided to them. Most of these caregivers were found to have wrist/ hand disorders among the nine types of disorders. For CSI among the maximum participants it was found to be that there have been work adjustments e.g., because of having to take time off. Keywords: Musculoskeletal disorders, Cerebral palsy, Primary Caregivers, Caregiver Strain