The Effect of a Horse-Riding Simulator with Virtual Reality on Gross Motor Function and Body Composition of Children with Cerebral Palsy: Preliminary Study

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a horse-riding simulator (HRS) with virtual reality (VR) on gross motor function, balance control, and body composition in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Seventeen preschool and school-aged children with spastic CP were included; 10 children in the intervention group (HRS group) received 30 min of HRS with VR training twice a week for a total of 16 sessions in addition to conventional physiotherapy. Seven children in the control group were instructed to perform home-based aerobic exercises twice a week for 8 weeks in addition to conventional physiotherapy. Gross motor function measure (GMFM) and body composition were evaluated before the first session and after the last session. Before and after the 2-month intervention, Pediatric Balance Scale and Timed Up and Go test were evaluated for the HRS group. GMFM scores and body composition changed significantly in the HRS group (p < 0.05). However, no significant differences were observed in the control group. Changes in the GMFM total scores, GMFM dimension D scores, and skeletal muscle mass significantly differed between the HRS and control groups (p < 0.05). HRS with VR may be an effective adjunctive therapeutic approach for the rehabilitation of children with CP.

Effectiveness of Mechanical Horse-Riding Simulator-Based Interventions in Patients with Cerebral Palsy—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Twenty-one studies were deleted for not meeting the inclusion criteria (reasons in Figure 1 ). Finally, 12 clinical trials were included in this review [ 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 ]. All studies provided data for the qualitative synthesis (systematic review), and 10 reported quantitative data for use in the quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis) [ 63 , 64 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 ].…”

“…The studies included in this review were conducted between 1998 and 2022 in India [ 64 , 67 ], South Korea [ 65 , 66 , 70 , 71 ], Iraq [ 63 ], Spain [ 69 ], Brazil [ 73 ], Thailand [ 74 ] and the USA [ 72 ]. The included studies reported data from 343 patients with spastic diplegic CP with ages between 2 and 16 years old, of which 56% were male versus 44% female.…”

Design of Virtual Reality-Based Hippotherapy Simulator Exergaming Software and Its Controller for Rehabilitation of Children with Cerebral Palsy in Indonesia: An Engineering Concept

“…In [29], the researches uses a HRS device, a HMD to provide an immersive VR experience and a pair of hand-tracking device for controlling the VR game content. Each session consists of the following cycle: warm-up, first training program, rest period, second training program, and cool down for a total of about 30 minutes.…”

Horse Riding Simulator Design to Replicate Human Walking Gait for Hippotherapy in Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation

“…Other popular option is OSIM uGallop (Taiwan), used by 3 teams of researchers [18,23,24]. Lastly, SRIDER (Neiplus,Korea) [15], Shinhwa (Korea) [25], and Jufit JFF043QM (China) [26] each used by 1 team of researcher. However, all of the store-bought HRS devices have a similar design.…”

“…An HRS device is commonly sold as an exercise or fitness machine. Many recent reports in the last decade [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] show that using HRS yields positive results for CP treatments similar to an actual horse's hippotherapy.…”