​​​A research project by PhD-student Martha Veber Fogh​​

The overall prevalence of children with cerebral palsy (CP) in Denmark has been declining since the 1980s. Until year 2000 the decrease in prevalence was due to fewer children with CP born premature, but from 2000 onward, the decline has been due to fewer children with CP born at term. The prevalence of CP in children born preterm has decreased until the beginning of 2000, from when the pattern changed, and the prevalence has begun to increase. 

This study aims to provide knowledge about the increased prevalence of preterm children with CP in Denmark. Secondly, we aim to explore further causal factors leading to preterm birth and increased need for neonatal care, possibly depicting important changes in obstetric and neonatal practice and its causal effects on the prevalence of CP. Possible reasons for the increase in prevalence are many, but foremost a matter of clinical changes regarding women at risk of premature delivery and neonatal care. Furthermore, important parameters to evaluate are neonatal mortality and gestational age at birth; since both have a high impact on the prevalence of CP.

Our primary hypothesis is that the increased prevalence of preterm born children with CP directly results from decreasing mortality and growing proportions of infants born extremely premature. Our secondary hypothesis is that changes in ante-, peri- or neonatal factors may have increased the risk for vulnerability, for example, increasing maternal morbidity and neonatal perseverance.