Article

OBJECTIVE: Compare the effects of treadmill training and training with overground
walking (both without partial weight support) on motor skills in children with
cerebral palsy. DESIGN: Randomized controlled clinical trial. SETTING: Physical
therapy clinics. SUBJECTS: Thirty-six children with cerebral palsy (levels I-III
of the Gross Motor Functional Classification System) randomly divided into two
intervention groups. INTERVENTIONS: Experimental group (17 children) submitted to
treadmill training without partial weight support. Overground walking group (18
children) submitted to gait training on a fixed surface (ground). Training was
performed for seven consecutive weeks (two sessions per week), with four
subsequent weeks of follow-up. RESULTS: Both groups demonstrated improvements on
the 6-minute walk test (experimental group from 227.4 SD 49.4 to 377.2 SD 93.0;
overground walking group from 222.6 SD 42.6 to 268.0 SD 45.0), timed up-and-go
test (experimental group from 14.3 SD 2.9 to 7.8 SD 2.2; overground walking group
from 12.8 SD 2.2 to 10.5 SD 2.5), Pediatric Evaluation Disability Inventory
(experimental group from 128.0 SD 19.9 to 139.0 SD 18.4; overground walking group
from 120.8 SD 19.0 to 125.8 SD 12.2), Gross Motor Function Measure-88
(experimental group from 81.6 SD 8.7 to 93.0 SD 5.7; overground walking group
from 77.3 SD 7.0 to 80.8 SD 7.2), Berg Balance Scale (experimental group from
34.9 SD 8.5 to 46.7 SD 7.6; overground walking group from 31.9 SD 7.0 to 35.7 SD
6.8) after treatment. The experimental group demonstrated greater improvements
than the overground walking group both after treatment and during follow up (p <
0.05). CONCLUSION: Treadmill training proved more effective than training with
overground walking regarding functional mobility, functional performance, gross
motor function and functional balance in children with cerebral palsy.

Langue : ANGLAIS