ASSOCIATION BETWEEN COGNITION AND MOTOR FUNCTION IN CEREBRAL PALSY CHILDREN

P. Zada¹, J. Ali²

¹Helping Hand, Physiotherapy, Mansehra, Pakistan, ²Helping Hand Institute of Rehabiltation Sciences Mansehra, Physiotherapy, Mansehra, Pakistan

Background: The term "cerebral palsy" refers to a group of anomalies, including postural development, muscle tone problems, and activity restriction. It is particularly prevalent in children with physical problems and results from non-progressive abnormalities in the fetus's growing brain.

Purpose: The primary purpose of the study was to find out how motor function and cognition relate to one another in children with cerebral palsy.
The secondary goal was the Evaluation of the relationship between changes in motor and cognitive function after six months in the data that had already been gathered.

Methods: Subjects who met the inclusion criteria were recruited for the cross-sectional study at the Helping Hand Comprehensive Physical Rehabilitation Program Mansehra using a non-probability convenient sampling technique. Following baseline screening, subjects were assessed for their motor and cognitive abilities using the GMFM and CPM, respectively.

Results: The study included 106 individuals in total, of which 63% were male and 37% were female. The majority of kids were in grades V and III of the GMFM and CPM, respectively. There is a linear positive association (R=.523) between cognition and motor function. The regression model predicts significant variance (R2 =.273) in the dependent variable (p 0.001). (cognitive scores). Additionally, a substantial (P =.001) positive moderate (r =.580) association between the total scores for motor skills and cognition was found. The Wilcoxen test used to examine the correlational change in previously collected data revealed that there was no significant difference between pre and post motor scores (P = 0.096). The pre-post cognitive scores showed a substantial change (P = 0.023).

Conclusions: The correlation between motor function and cognition was found to be positive-linear, and the variance in the GMFM scores was found to be strongly predicted by the cognitive scores. Additionally, children with cerebral palsy showed a substantial positive moderate link between their motor skills and cognitive performance. While the correlational change was non-significant for motor scores and significant for cognitive scores,

Implications: Improvment in motor function through physical therapy can improve the cognition

Funding acknowledgements: N/A

Keywords:
Cerebral palsy
Cognitive function
Motor skills

Topics:
Paediatrics: cerebral palsy
Paediatrics

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Helping Hand Institute Of Rehabilitation Sciences

Committee: Approval was taken from research and ethical committe of Helping Hand

Ethics number: 32-2022