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Effects of a 12 week community-based high-level mobility programme on sustained participation in physical activity by adolescents with cerebral palsy : A single subject research design study
Kilgour, Gaela Stott, Ngaire Susan Steele, Michael Adair, Brooke Hogan, Amy Imms, Christine
Kilgour, Gaela
Stott, Ngaire Susan
Steele, Michael
Adair, Brooke
Hogan, Amy
Imms, Christine
Abstract
Purpose
To assess if a high-level mobility programme (HLMP) can promote sustained participation in physical activity by adolescents with cerebral palsy.
Methods
Eight adolescents with cerebral palsy, Gross Motor Function Classification System levels I-II, 11–16 years, participated in 24 community-based group HLMP sessions across 12 weeks. Participants set attendance, involvement, and physical performance goals, completed activity diaries over 58 weeks and undertook physical capacity tests. Measures of activity frequency and diversity (attendance) and involvement level were collected weekly across baseline (4–6 weeks), intervention (12 weeks), and nine months follow-up (including Covid lockdown).
Results
Median attendance was 23 of 24 HLMP sessions. Attendance goal/s attainment was highest during COVID lockdown. Involvement goals were consistently attained throughout all phases. Physical performance goal/s attainment was highest during intervention phase but reduced during nine months follow-up. Frequency of participation in physical activities varied greatly across study phases (range 0–33 episodes/week) with stable variety of activities and generally high ‘involvement.’ During the intervention, seven participants improved physical capacity and six maintained, or increased, the gains six months later.
Conclusion
Most participants improved physical capacity post-intervention but only some had sustained attendance and involvement in physical activity, highlighting the complexity of physical activity participation.
IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION
• Health professionals’ promotion of sustained participation in physical activity needs to consider individual preferences for frequency, diversity and duration.
• Supporting and measuring involvement in physical activity should be prioritised as a key outcome of an intervention.
• Physical activity interventions should be followed up for longer than six months to determine sustained changes in participation outcomes
• Measuring physical capacity and performance gains alone is insufficient to determine sustained, meaningful participation.
Keywords
cerebral palsy, participation, physical activity, running, intervention
Date
2024
Type
Journal article
Journal
Disability and Rehabilitation
Book
Volume
46
Issue
15
Page Range
3408-3418
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Allied Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.