Use of Evidence to Reduce the Load of Therapy: Occupational Therapy for Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Background: Occupational therapy outcomes for motor improvement aredifferent among the children with cerebral palsy to determine the effectivefactors related to gross motor achievement in the children with Cerebral palsy(CP), the present project was designed.Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 59 CP patients with Gross MotorFunction Classification System (GMFCS) 1-4 were evaluated by Gross MotorFunction Measure (GMFM). They were referred to four centers in Shiraz, Iran,in 2015. Results of therapy were monitoring five times during six months foreach participant, according to achievement to stages of GMFM, and marginalmodeling method was utilized.Results: The results revealed the significance of some factors including, age atstarting occupational therapy services, number of sessions per week, type ofspastic, level four of socio economic status (SES), grade two of GMFCS, and timeeffect on the outcome (upgrade to a higher level on each occasion) (p <0.05).Conclusion: Based on the odds ratio (OR) values, the number of occupationaltherapy sessions per week had the most positive effect on gross motor functionupgrade for at least two half times. Age at starting occupational therapy servicewas the second important factor in the outcome. However, spending more timefor therapy and early starting relates to family characteristics and also financialsupport.

Keywords

• cerebral palsy
• gross motor function
• longitudinal studies
• prognosis