Effect of Using Treadmill Exercise on Mobility Skills in Hemophilic Children

Abstract

Background: One of the most severe blood coagulation disorders is Hemophilia. As a result of the bleeding episodes, immobilization and diminish physical activities hemophilic patients face serious problems as loss of muscle mass, decreased strength, balance problems and proprioception loss. The treadmill exercise is one of the most effective and available tool to achieve improving mobility skills in those children during walking. The aiming of this study to investigate the effect of treadmill exercises on mobility skills in hemophilic children.Methodolgy: Thirty hemophilic children ranging in age from seven to eleven years were assigned randomly into two groups of equal number (control and study groups). Control group received selective physical therapy program aiming to facilitate balance, while study group received the same exercises as the control group in addition to treadmill exercise. Dynamic Posturography was used to evaluate mobility skills parameters as Step length, Step Width, Speed, Turn time and Turn Sway of all children in both groups before and after three successive months of treatment. Results:The results revealed significant differences of all measured variables of mobility skills in two groups after three successive months of treatment, also revealed significant difference when compared the two groups after treatment in favor of the study group. Conclusion:The using treadmill exercise can be added to the physical therapy program aiming to improve mobility skills in hemophilic children during walking.