Pedometer-based gait training in children with spastic hemiparetic cerebral palsy: a randomized controlled study.

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of pedometer-based gait training on changing gait parameters in children with spastic hemiparetic cerebral palsy.

DESIGN: Two group randomized controlled trial with pre-treatment and post-treatment measures.

SETTING: Rehabilitation clinics.

SUBJECTS: Thirty spastic hemiparetic children with cerebral palsy of both sexes (13 females and 17 males) ranging in age from six to eight years old with mean age 7.05 ± 0.78 years.

INTERVENTIONS: Children were randomized equally to receive pedometer-based gait training or a traditional gait training programme three times per week for three successive months.

MAIN MEASURES: Assessment was done before and after three months of treatment application using 3D motion analysis system with six pro-reflex cameras to evaluate spatiotemporal gait parameters. The primary outcome measure was the walking velocity while the secondary outcome measures were stride length, cadence and cycle duration.

RESULTS: There was a high statistically significant improvement in favour of the study group more than the control group concerning all the measured gait parameters. T-test results showed that velocity was 0.68 ± 0.09 m/sec (0.26 ± 0.07 change score) for study group and 0.42 ± 0.11 m/sec (0.06 ± 0.05 change score) for control group (t = 6.2) (P < 0.0001) while cadence was much less significant 124.3 ± 4.3 step/min (-5.8 ± 2.1 change score) for study group and 128.7 ± 4.1 step/min (-0.86 ± 0.05 change score) for control group (t = 2.8) (P < 0.008).

CONCLUSION: Pedometer-based gait training is a useful tool that can be used in improving gait parameters in children with spastic hemiparetic cerebral palsy.