Longitudinal study showed that the quality of life of Finnish adolescents with cerebral palsy continued to be relatively good.

AIM: This longitudinal study examined what perceptions paediatric patients with cerebral palsy (CP) and their caregivers had of the patient's quality of life (QoL). It examined changing trends as children with CP became adolescents and examined the feasibility of the Finnish version of the CP QOL-Teen questionnaire.

METHODS: Carried out in autumn 2015, this study formed part of the multi-centre Finnish national CP project and aimed to validate the CP QOL-Teen questionnaire, which was posted to 54 adolescents and their caregivers. They included 24 who had responded to CP QOL-Child questionnaire in 2013.

RESULTS: The questionnaires were returned by 27 pairs of adolescents and caregivers and one extra caregiver also responded. Of these, 24 pairs had taken part in the 2013 survey. The internal consistencies of the sum variables were found to be acceptable in all cases. Overall QoL showed an average score of 81.8 on a scale from 0 to 100. Adolescents reported significantly higher QoL than their caregivers. There were no significant differences between the responses of the children and adolescents.

CONCLUSION: We showed that QoL was relatively good in childhood and adolescence. The Finnish version of the CP QOL-Teen questionnaire was an appropriate clinical tool for assessing QoL.