Maternal concerns regarding chewing dysfunction in children with cerebral palsy

INTRODUCTION: The aim was to investigate maternal concerns of children with cerebral palsy (CP) who was referred for a chewing evaluation, and the relationship between chewing performance level and the concerns of their mothers.
METHODS: A total of 55 children with CP, and their mothers were included. Age, gender, height, weight, and type of CP were noted. The Karaduman Chewing Performance Scale (KCPS) was used to define chewing performance level.Children with KCPS level 0 were categorized as ‘children without chewing dysfunction’, and children with KCPS level I to IV were ‘children with chewing dysfunction’. The Turkish version of the Feeding/Swallowing Impact Survey (T-FS-IS) was used to evaluate the maternal concerns related to child’s feeding and swallowing problems.

RESULTS: The mean age of children was 4.45±2.56 (min=2, max=11) years, of which 58.2% were male. There was a moderate to strong correlation between the KCPS and daily activities, worry, feeding difficulties and total score from the T-FS-IS (p < 0.001, r = 0.71, r = 0.64, r = 0.72, r = 0.74, respectively). Mothers of children with chewing dysfunction reported more problems in total score and all subscales of the T-FS-IS than mothers of children without chewing dysfunction (p<0.01).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study suggests that chewing performance level of children was associated with maternal concerns, and mothers of children with CP who had chewing dysfunction have higher concerns related to feeding-swallowing difficulties. This knowledge regarding maternal perception points out that clinicians should consider concerns of mothers during management of chewing dysfunction.