Promotion of a Physically Active Lifestyle in Cerebral Palsy

Summary

There is increasing evidence that physical activity during childhood and adolescence has an important impact on health and behavior outcomes. Lack of physical activity is currently a major concern for the total population and especially for children and adolescents. People with disabilities are at risk for the same health problems as the general population. Due to their disabilities, they have a higher risk for developing secondary conditions that may further affect their health and quality of life.The goals of this project are to develop and evaluate new approaches of treatment for children with cerebral palsy (CP) and to develop low cost tests for evaluating motor functions in natural environments.

The overall aim is to raise awareness of, and promote, a physically active lifestyle for Middle East teenagers with disabilities due to CP by means of a collaborative Jordanian-Israeli-Palestinian-Moroccan applied research project. Specific objectives include:

1. Evaluation of baseline levels of physical activity in large populations of children and teenagers with CP in the communities of the participating countries by long-term monitoring by accelerometers.
2. Conducting a randomized clinical trial to compare the efficacy of an "experimental" physical training program with a treadmill training program in two groups. The experimental training program is based on results of recent motor control studies, as well as the "motor learning" approach to facilitate transfer and retention of learned walking activities.
3. Disability Advocacy through dissemination of activity focus programs, raising awareness, making use of new technologies and enhancing and developing the skills and training of personnel working with populations with CP.
4. Continuing the expansion of collaborative research efforts pertaining to children and teenagers with physical disabilities between Arab countries and Israel through sharing of skills and knowledge by exchange visits, meetings and seminars and joint training, pediatric physiotherapists and physical educators.

Conditions

• Cerebral Palsy (CP)

Interventions

DEVICE

TreadMill

Each subject will undergo 36 intervention sessions, 3 times a week, 12 weeks. Each session - up to 45 minutes TreadMill training: During each session the subject will first exercise with basic stretching and muscle strengthening and then walk on the treadmill. According to the subject's rate of improvement, a therapist will determine the rate of increase in the velocity and slope. The treating therapist will make a written report after each session.

OTHER

Physical activity in groups

Each subject will undergo 36 intervention sessions, 3 times a week, 12 weeks. Each session - up to 45 minutes. Activity Focus Training: this involves performing gross motor activities at exercise stations that involve repetitive, reciprocal and coordinated movements to facilitate strength and endurance conducted by physical therapists and instructing parents or other caregivers to be involved in the program. These activities are performed in a group, having a minimum of 6 children at one time.

BEHAVIORAL

Monitoring physical activity

Activity monitoring with accelerometers

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

  collaborator OTHER

• Assaf-Harofeh Medical Center

  lead OTHER_GOV

Principal Investigators

• Simona Bar-Haim, PhD · Assaf-Harofeh Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

SINGLE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

14 Years

Max Age

20 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-03-31

Primary Completion

2012-04-30

Completion

2013-09-30

Countries

• Israel

Study Locations