Retention of bimanual performance following hand arm bimanual intensive therapy in children with unilateral cerebral palsy: A six-month longitudinal study
2024

Retention of Bimanual Performance in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Sample size: 30 publication 10 minutes Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Gardas Shailesh S., Lysaght Christine, Patterson Charity, Surkar Swati M.

Primary Institution: Dept of Physical Therapy, East Carolina University

Hypothesis

Performance gains immediately after HABIT will gradually diminish within a few months.

Conclusion

HABIT initially enhances bimanual performance, but these benefits diminish within six months.

Supporting Evidence

  • HABIT resulted in significant improvements in bimanual performance immediately post-therapy.
  • Improvements in upper extremity capacity were observed immediately after HABIT.
  • Performance gains were retained for 3 months but declined significantly by 6 months.

Takeaway

Kids with cerebral palsy can do better with their hands after special therapy, but they might forget how to do it well after a while.

Methodology

Thirty children with UCP underwent HABIT for 6 hours a day over 5 days, with performance assessed using accelerometers.

Potential Biases

Potential biases due to reliance on accelerometer data capturing both purposeful and non-purposeful movements.

Limitations

The study lacked a control group and did not assess bimanual capacity measures during follow-up.

Participant Demographics

{"age_range":"6-16 years","sex_distribution":{"male":16,"female":7},"hemiplegia_side":{"left":11,"right":12},"race_distribution":{"white":20,"asian":3},"MACS_levels":{"I":2,"II":10,"III":11}}

Statistical Information

P-Value

0.05

Confidence Interval

95% CI

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1371/journal.pone.0313018

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