Repeatability of net mechanical efficiency during stair climbing in children with cerebral palsy.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the smallest significant change in mechanical efficiency (MEnet) measured by a stair-climbing test.


METHODS
Duplicate stair-climbing tests (T1 and T2), with more than a 30-minute rest between, were performed by 51 children with diplegic cerebral palsy (CP) at levels II and III of Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) and 9 children with typical development, aged 5.5 to 13.0 years.


RESULTS
The T2 versus T1 slope values of MEnet for CP and typical development did not significantly differ from 1.00. MEnet was significantly higher for GMFCS level II (7.0%) than level III (1.2%). The mean percentage of difference was 7.8% (T2 > T1) for the children with CP, with a 95% confidence interval of -39% to +54%. The 95% confidence interval for MEnet scores computed from the standard error of the mean (SEM) of the percentage of differences was 4.0 to 4.5 for CP.


CONCLUSIONS
An increase of >13.4% in MEnet score (eg, mean increase from 4.0% to 4.5%) can indicate improved motor status resulting from interventions.
Bar-Haim
Simona
S
Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Harries
Netta
N
Al-Oraibi
Saleh
S
Lahat
Eliezer
E
Waddah
Malhis
M
Loeppky
Jack A
JA
Belokopytov
Mark
M
D000293:Adolescent; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology