title: Prevalence of Cerebral Palsy among 8-Year-Old Children in 2010 and Preliminary Evidence of Trends in Its Relationship to Low Birthweight.
abstract: The public health objective for cerebral palsy (CP) in the United States is to reduce the percentage of children with CP who were born low birthweight (LBW, <2500 g) by 10% between 2006 and 2020. This study reports the prevalence of CP in a constant surveillance area for the years 2006, 2008, and 2010 and describes initial progress towards the CP public health objective.
  
  
  
  Data on children with CP at age 8 years were ascertained by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, a population-based surveillance system that monitored CP in four areas of the United States.
  
  
  
  CP prevalence in 2010 was 2.9 per 1000 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.6, 3.2], down from 3.5 (95% CI 3.2, 3.9) in the same surveillance area in 2006. Among CP cases with no documented postneonatal aetiology, 49.1% (95% CI 42.9, 55.2) were born LBW in 2010 compared with 54.3% (95% CI 48.4, 60.1) in 2006. In 2010, 28.1% (95% CI 22.9, 30.4) were born very low birthweight (VLBW, <1500 g) compared with 35.4% (95% CI 30.0, 41.2) in 2006. The relative risks for associations between CP and both LBW and VLBW also declined, though not significantly, during the study period.
  
  
  
  Declines in the associations between CP and LBW categories may have contributed to declines during the study period in both the prevalence of CP and the percentage of children with CP who were born LBW or VLBW. Ongoing monitoring of these trends is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI.|Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.|Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI.
authors.forename: Maureen S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Durkin
authors.affiliation: Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.|Department of Kinesiology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
authors.forename: Ruth E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Benedict
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI.|Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
authors.forename: Lindsay A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Dubois
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO.
authors.forename: Robert T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.
authors.forename: Russell S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kirby
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Maenner
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Van Naarden Braun
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Martha S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wingate
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Marshalyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yeargin-Allsopp
mesh_terms: D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: birth weight; cerebral palsy; epidemiology prevalence; public health surveillance