Whole Body Vibration for Children and Young Adults With Moderate Severity of Cerebral Palsy

Summary

Osteopenia is common in children with cerebral palsy (CP) due to poor bone growth and muscle disuse and the problem extends to their adulthood. These children and young adults with CP, especially those with moderate physical disabilities, are unable to perform the required amount of exercise to improve their bone health as their typically developing counterparts. As a result, non-traumatic fractures and bone pain are common in individuals with moderate severity of CP. Whole body vibration therapy (WBVT) has been recently proven to improve bone health and muscle function in healthy adults and post-menopausal women. Among the research of the WBVT for children with CP, promising results have been shown on gross motor function, balance and muscle strength for children with mild disability. Among these published studies, the vibration protocols required the study participants to perform simple exercises on the vibration platform. Very limited studies have been conducted on children and young adults with moderate CP. At present, it is unknown if the effect of WBVT would be for this population group when compared with those with mild CP in terms of their gross motor function and balance, because the moderate group is greatly compromised in their mobility and extent of regular exercises when compared with the normal population and those with mild CP. In addition, it is unknown if static standing on the vibration platform would have similar effects on the gross motor function as doing simple exercises on the vibration platform. This pilot study aims to examine the effect of WBVT on children and young adults with moderate severity of CP. A convenience sample of 5 pre-puberty children aged between 6 to 14 years and 5 young adults aged between 18 to 40 years with moderate CP, i.e. Gross Motor Function Classification System, GMFCS level III or IV, will be recruited to systematically investigate the effects of WBVT on their functional abilities.

Conditions

• Cerebral Palsy

Interventions

DEVICE

whole body vibration

The children and young adults will receive the WBVT when standing still on a vibration platform of 20 Hertz and a peak-to-peak amplitude of 2 mm: sessions will be 18 minutes in length, 4 days per week for 4 weeks. Assessments will be performed at baseline and at completion of the intervention to examine the functional abilities of these children and young adults. The vibration frequency, duration and amplitude will be progressively increased over 2 weeks to the maximum of 3 minutes of 20 Hz with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 2mm.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Manchester Metropolitan University

  collaborator OTHER

• The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Tamis W Pin, PhD · The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

45 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-02-20

Primary Completion

2018-09-28

Completion

2018-09-28

Countries

• Hong Kong

Study Locations