MEASURES OF FUNCTION IN PHYSICAL THERAPY ASSESSMENT OF CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY: A CLINICAL AUDIT

¹University of Santo Tomas, The Graduate School, Manila, Philippines, ²University of the Philippines Manila, Physical Therapy, Manila, Philippines

Background: Effective assessment of outcomes in children with cerebral palsy (CP) is important to monitor their progress, evaluate interventions, and guide health policy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study are as follows: (1) to identify the most common outcome measures used in the clinics to assess function in children with CP, and (2) to determine whether the outcome measures used in the clinics meet the current standards of assessment for the purpose of improving patient care decisions, research, and quality assurance.

Methods: A retrospective record audit study design was used to determine if the current practice in the clinics on the assessment of function in children with CP meet the current standards of assessment.

Results: 96 charts with initial evaluation were reviewed from 5 pediatric institutions within Metro Manila who agreed to participate in this study. 18 out of these 96 charts (18.7%) met the current standards of assessment using gross motor function measure (GMFM), whereas 78 out of these 96 charts (81.3) used a descriptive type of assessment such as gait analysis (GA) [20.9%], activities of daily living (ADL) analysis [79.1%], functional muscle testing (FMT) [44.2%], gross motor skills assessment [37.2%], advanced motor skills assessment [23.3%], balance assessment [4.7%], developmental milestone assessment [2.3%], and self-adaptive measure [2.3%].

Conclusions: The findings showed that most clinics prefer to use a descriptive type to assess function in children with CP. Furthermore, it was revealed that the pediatric institutions who agreed to participate in this study did not meet the current standards of assessment.

Implications: This research has value to generate more evidences in aid of service delivery for this population. Furthermore, this study provides a better understanding on the current practice to assess this population by pediatric PTs. Hence, valuable outcomes from interventions can now be guided with the use of appropriate outcome measure tools suitable for the needs of a child with CP in terms of function.

Funding acknowledgements: None.

Keywords:
Cerebral palsy
Service delivery
Clinical audit

Topics:
Paediatrics: cerebral palsy
Service delivery/emerging roles
Disability & rehabilitation

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: University of Santo Tomas Graduate School

Committee: Ethics Review Committee

Ethics number: GS-2016-PN-375