title: Repeatability of net mechanical efficiency during stair climbing in children with cerebral palsy.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bar-Haim
authors.forename: Netta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Harries
authors.forename: Saleh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al-Oraibi
authors.forename: Eliezer
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lahat
authors.forename: Malhis
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Waddah
authors.forename: Jack A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Loeppky
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Belokopytov
mesh_terms: 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