Measurement of physical activity in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy: a scoping review protocol

Subjective measurement of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy: a scoping review

PURPOSE

Physical activity is essential for maintaining overall health. Cost-effective and easily administered outcome instruments are valuable for clinical practice and large-scale population studies. The scoping review aimed to identify and map subjective instruments developed or validated to measure habitual physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy aged 0-18 years across all levels of the GMFCS-E&R.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and searched the databases PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, Embase and Pedro to identify articles.

RESULTS

From 288 full-text references, 13 studies met the inclusion criteria. Nine instruments measured habitual physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy aged 18 months to 18 years. Six subjective instruments were tested for ambulatory children, while three instruments were tested in children and adolescents at GMFCS-E&R level I-V.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Reporting of the psychometric properties were found on reliability in three instruments, while data on validity were reported in all instruments. Further studies assessing the psychometric properties of subjective instruments in the target population are needed.

Physical Activity and Public Health among People with Disabilities: Research Gaps and Recommendations

Physical activity has become an integral component of public health systems modeling the public health core functions of assessment, policy development, and assurance. However, people with disabilities have often not been included in public health efforts to assess, develop policies, or evaluate the impact of physical activity interventions to promote health and prevent disease among people with disabilities. Addressing the core function of assessment, current physical activity epidemiology, and surveillance among people with disabilities across the globe highlights the paucity of surveillance systems that include physical activity estimates among people with disabilities. The status of valid and reliable physical activity measures among people with condition-specific disabilities is explored, including self-report measures along with wearable devices, and deficiencies in measurement of physical activity. The core functions of policy development and assurance are described in the context of community-based intervention strategies to promote physical activity among people with disabilities. The identification of research gaps in health behavior change, policy, and environmental approaches to promoting physical activity among people with disabilities is explored, along with recommendations based on the principles of inclusive and engaged research partnerships between investigators and the members of the disability community.

The impact of COVID-19 on the lifestyles of adolescents with cerebral palsy in the Southeast United States

Background

The impact of COVID-19 on adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) and their families is underinvestigated, particularly in the Southeastern United States.

Objective/Hypothesis

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of COVID-19 on lifestyle activities, general and mental health, and basic needs among a cohort of adolescents with CP in the Southeast U.S. The second purpose was to identify key factors that impacted their lifestyles.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional survey of adolescents with CP (aged 10–19 years) who completed a child-modified version of the Coronavirus Disability Survey. Health and behavior items were associated with the perceived lifestyle impact of COVID-19.

Results

A total of 101 respondents completed the survey (mean age: 14 ± 2 years). Respondents reported minimal to no change in general health since the COVID-19 outbreak. Basic needs were met for most families. Nearly all participants (94.1%) reported a mental health concern that resulted from COVID-19: 32.7% felt down or depressed; 47.5% felt little pleasure in doing things; and 64.4% felt isolated. Moreover, 74.3% reported decreased socialization, 51.5% reported reduced exercise participation, and 43.6% reported difficulties in obtaining medical care. Most participants (90.1%) were negatively affected by COVID-19, and key associated factors were reduced interactions with friends and family (p = 0.001), exercise participation (p = 0.016), interest in doing things (p = 0.005), worsened depression (p = 0.015), increased isolation from others (p = 0.02) and at home (p = 0.006), technological communication (p = 0.00), and virus exposure (p = 0.008).

Conclusions

Study findings highlight problem areas that warrant urgent intervention among adolescents with CP located within the Southeast U.S.