Virtual rehabilitation in a school setting: is it feasible for children with cerebral palsy?

Henley

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

et al. 2013

Obesity is a major public health concern and there are increasing calls for policy intervention. As obesity and the related health conditions develop during childhood, schools are being seen as important locations for obesity prevention, including multifaceted interventions incorporating policy elements. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the effects of policies related to diet and physical activity in schools, either alone, or as part of an intervention programme on the weight status of children aged 4 to 11 years. A comprehensive and systematic search of medical, education, exercise science, and social science databases identified 21 studies which met the inclusion criteria. There were no date, location or language restrictions. The identified studies evaluated a range of either, or both, diet and physical activity related policies, or intervention programmes including such policies, using a variety of observational and experimental designs. The policies were clustered into those which sought to affect diet, those which sought to affect physical activity and those which sought to affect both diet and physical activity to undertake random effects meta-analysis. Within the diet cluster, studies of the United States of America National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs were analysed separately; however there was significant heterogeneity in the pooled results. The pooled effects of the physical activity, and other diet related policies on BMI-SDS were non-significant. The multifaceted interventions tended to include policy elements related to both diet and physical activity (combined cluster), and although these interventions were too varied to pool their results, significant reductions in weight-related outcomes were demonstrated. The evidence from this review suggests that, when implemented alone, school diet and physical activity related policies appear insufficient to prevent or treat overweight or obesity in children, however, they do appear to have an effect when developed and implemented as part of a more extensive intervention programme. Additional evidence is required before recommendations regarding the focus of policies can be made and therefore, increased effort should be made to evaluate the effect of policies and policy containing intervention programmes upon weight status.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between childhood overweight and obesity and primary school diet and physical activity policies

Henley

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

et al. 2013

“…Recently, it has been proven the efficacy of VR devices based on videogames in supporting the conventional rehabilitative treatment of children affected by several diseases (e.g. cerebral palsy, autism, as well as pediatric headache), both at hospital [14,15,16] and in home or school environment [17,18]. There are few commercial platforms based on immersive VR which can be used to flank and support traditional PT in clinical institutes, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Immersive Virtual Reality Platform to Enhance Walking Ability of Children with Acquired Brain Injuries

et al. 2017

“…Caregivers adherence increases when they identify the task as purposeful for their CP clients and observe the CP client having fun and enjoying physical activity (12), although caregivers usually choose the most straightforward exercises to perform due to low adherence rates (9). Satisfaction and self-efficacy are relevant to overall adherence from caregivers (9), this may be satisfied with therapists or with home exercise programs.…”

Section: Motivators and Barriers For Caregiversmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Home-based exercise programs offer an environment that the caregiver and CP client are familiar with; this can make the environment non-stressful and conducive to a holistic rehabilitation model (10). Being in the home environment provides opportunities for repeated practice for new tasks within a familiar environment (10); the only issue is caregivers, and CP clients have added pressure of adhering to this style of exercise program (12). These children require more care, resulting in physical and mental stress for caregivers, especially with those who need specialised and long-term care that can carry on throughout their lives (14).…”

Section: Using An Online Exercise Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first two exercises in each sub-group (CV, MSC, CV+MSC) will be performed for 10 minutes each and the last two exercises will be 5 minutes each (equalling 30 minutes) (Table 5). The intensity will be based off the Borg Scale (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) and will be at an intensity of 13 (somewhat hard) (48). The MSC exercises (seated leg press, seated bent knee calf raise and grip squeeze) will be performed for two sets and ten to twelve repetitions (2 x 10-12).…”

Section: Fitt Principlementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Developing a protocol for an online exercise programme for cerebral palsy clients using 'Physitrack'

Kelly¹

Background: Children and adolescents with Cerebral Palsy (CP) often receive exercise programs to assist in therapy, habitual exercise, exercise motivation and rehabilitation. Adherence and motivation to exercise programs are two necessary components to achieve exercise goals but can be challenging to accomplish due to difficulties in acquiring novel motor skills, leading to poor performance in daily living activities and restricted participation. The advancement and accessibility of technology show successful integrations in other special populations of games and applications (apps) (i.e., Virtual reality (VR)). However, the use of task-specific online exercise programs/apps within the CP population is unknown. Methods: The literature review (Chapter 2) systematically searched and reviewed three main areas critical to this thesis: 1) exercises for CP clients, 2) uses of online apps/technology, and 3) reviewed relevant outcome measures. Data from the literature review was used to develop a protocol for a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) (Chapter 3). Results: Eleven studies were identified, and data was extracted regarding technology used, the frequency, intensity, time, and type (FITT) principle and associated outcome measures. This information was then used to develop an evidence-based training protocol using the Physitrack app that will serve as the basis of a future RCT. The protocol developed in Chapter 3 was submitted to the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research for further research into technology-specific interventions for CP exercise programs. Conclusion: An 8-week individualised training program delivered using the Physitrack app, which evaluates clinical and non-clinical outcome measures would provide a robust and easy-to-follow program to reduce burnout/frustration/drop out of caregivers and CP clients. The impact of COVID-19 lockdown resulted in the main study RCT being a protocol as participants for the study were unable to be recruited. A future direction for this thesis would be to complete the RCT protocol in Chapter 3.