title: Comparing risks of cerebral palsy in births between Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous mothers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare proportions of live births subsequently described as having cerebral palsy (CP), the distributions of associated impairments, and the causes of postneonatal CP between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) and non-Indigenous populations in Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from statutory birth records and CP registers for the 1996 to 2005 birth cohort in Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory were stratified by Indigenous status and whether the CP was acquired pre/perinatally or postneonatally. Relative risks associated with Indigenous status were estimated and the distributions of causes of postneonatal CP compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Indigenous births had a relative risk of 4.9 (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.0-7.9) for postneonatal CP but only of 1.42 (95% CI 1.2-1.7) for pre/perinatal CP. Almost half of postneonatal CP in Indigenous infants resulted from infection, whereas for non-Indigenous infants the most frequent cause was cerebrovascular accident. The impairments of Indigenous CP and of postneonatally acquired CP tended to be more numerous and more severe.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Indigenous children are at significantly greater risk of CP, particularly postneonatal CP. The predominant cause of postneonatal CP in non-Indigenous children has shifted to cerebrovascular accident over time; however, infections followed by head injury are still the most frequent causes in Indigenous infants.
authors.affiliation: Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.affiliation: Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.|Department of Health Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.affiliation: Community Paediatrics, Northern Territory Department of Health, Centre for Disease Control, Darwin, NT, Australia.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: O'Kearney
authors.affiliation: Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, NT, Australia.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: D'Antoine
authors.affiliation: Queensland Cerebral Palsy Register, Cerebral Palsy League, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Delacy
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002494:Central Nervous System Infections / Q000150:complications*; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D012306:Risk; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications*; D000095283:Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples