EDACS - stability and associations with growth
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Eating and Drinking Ability Classification System for cerebral palsy: a study of stability and associations with growth over time.
IRAS ID
197498
Contact name
Diane Sellers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sussex Community NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 28 days
Research summary
Children with cerebral palsy (CP) cannot use the range of physical movement available to most of us. A child's ability to walk, speak and use his or her hands may be affected. The movements involved in biting, chewing and swallowing are often also affected. Children with CP, who cannot move their mouth muscles to eat and drink efficiently, are likely to have problems eating enough food to grow and stay healthy. Some of them will have problems with frequent chest infections because particles of food or drink enter their lungs when they swallow. These life threatening difficulties continue throughout their lives.
Dr Diane Sellers recently led a research project to develop a new Eating and Drinking Ability Classification System (EDACS) to systematically describe the eating and drinking difficulties of people with CP in one of five levels: Level I indicates that someones eating and drinking is safe and efficient through to Level V which indicates that someone is unable to eat and drink safely. EDACS was shown to be reliable when used by pairs of speech and language therapists.
This study aims to use the different levels of EDACS to explore the eating and drinking abilities of children with CP over time. Existing and historical health care records for children with CP will be used by their usual speech and language therapists to record EDACS levels at 4 time points over a retrospective 10 year period. Any weight data recorded in health records for these children will also be noted in relation to age.
The EDACS levels recorded at each of the time points will be compared. The relationship between children's eating and drinking ability and weight will be analysed.
REC name
London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0344
Date of REC Opinion
17 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion