NCT02467829

Effects of Altering Handle Height of Posterior Walkers

What Are the Effects of Altering Handle Height of Posterior Walkers on Gait Parameters in Children With Spastic Cerebral Palsy?

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 15 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Birmingham · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 5 Years – 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The aims of this study are to investigate what effect altering handle height of posterior walkers has on forces through the walker, posture, efficiency, stability, speed, turning and comfort, and to obtain data which helps therapists understand the bio-mechanics involved during use and if this alters depending on age, posture or strength. All participants will have cerebral palsy. This will allow informed prescription of walkers and identify potential for redesign to improve efficiency, promote strengthening or improve posture to maximise children's potential to continue functional walking into adulthood.

Detailed description

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) find walking effortful due to weakness, lack of coordination between muscle groups, postural changes, poor balance and altered muscle tone. Walking aids improve efficiency, stability and posture.Posterior walkers were developed in the mid 1980's. There is evidence of their advantages over more traditional anterior walkers, however there is no evidence relating to setting handle height, and little information about bio-mechanics during use. This is a quantitative pilot study with a cross over design. A purposive sample of approximately 15 children will be recruited from Birmingham Community Healthcare National Health Service (NHS) Trust. Assessments will be carried out at 3 different handle heights, determined by measuring elbow flexion when the participant is standing holding the handles of their walker. Participants will attend two assessments. One at their school, and a second at the University of Birmingham. Forces going through the walker and the participant's feet, range of motion at the trunk, hip and knee, velocity, step and stride length, double support time, physiological cost index, pain, gross motor function, hip abductor strength and ease of turning will be measured. Analysis of variance with repeated measures will be used to analyse changes across handle heights and multiple linear regression to show associations between the dependent variables studied and identify potential confounding factors. p\<0.05 will be considered statistically significant. Effect sizes needed for clinical significance will be considered.

Conditions

• Cerebral Palsy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Increase in handle height	Elbow flexion is measured with the child standing in their walker using an electronic goniometer. Approximately 10° of elbow flexion is current recommended practice. 30° and 50° are increased handle heights.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-01-01
• Primary completion: 2016-04-01
• Completion: 2016-09-01
• First posted: 2015-06-10
• Last updated: 2016-01-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom