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In an analysis of epidemiologic risk factors for cerebral palsy (CP), Australian researchers used nationwide information from perinatal databases, CP registries, and maternal questionnaires to estimate the relative influences of various risk factors in a cohort of 587 children and adolescents (age range, 5–18) with CP and in 1154 controls.
Certain maternal infections (particularly those that occurred during gestational weeks 21–40 and that caused fever) were associated with CP (41.4% of cases vs. 31.3% of controls; odds ratio, 1.6; P<0.001). However, common upper respiratory tract and gastrointestinal infections were not associated with CP. Other significant risk factors included birthweight <3rd percentile (OR, 11.8), gestational age <32 we…