Correlation between physical functions, self-esteem and pain in brachial plexus birth palsy adolescents versus normal peers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether self-esteem and pain affect the physical functions and vice-versa in adolescent obstetric brachial plexus injury (OBPI) patients, and to compare the results with non-OBPI peers..Patients and Methods: We have structured a survey questionnaire consists of physical functions, self-esteem and pain, based on the Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI) for OBPI and non-OBPI adolescents. 37 OBPI adolescents (age range from 11 to 19), and 39 non-OBPI peers answered to this study questionnaire. Results: The mean score for self-esteem in OBPI was 2.85 ±0.33, which is neutral. However, this was significantly lower (p< 0.012) compared to non-OBPI peers in this study (3.59 ± 0.44). The maximum score 5 is considered as high self-esteem in our study questionnaire, whereas the minimum score 1 is assigned for low self-esteem. In addition, these OBPI patients reported having mild difficulty in carrying out physical functions (3.72 ±0.45) and had mild pain (4.13 ± 0.31), in comparison to their non-OBPI counterparts , who did not have any difficulties in performing physical functions (4.86 ± 0.26) and almost had no pain (4.79 ± 0.37).?