Relationship Between Postural Control, Quality of Upper Limb Skills, and Functional Independence in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Cross-Sectional Study.

AIM: To evaluate the relationship between postural control, quality of upper limb skills, and functional independence in children with cerebral palsy (CP).

METHODS

This cross-sectional study included 36 children (aged 3-8 years; GMFCS I-V and MACS I-V) with CP. Postural control was assessed using the Early Clinical Assessment of Balance (ECAB), upper limb (UL) skills by Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test (QUEST), and functional independence through Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Computer Adaptive Test (PEDI-CAT, DA domain). Spearman's correlation and multiple linear regression were used for analysis (α  =  0.05).

RESULTS

Strong positive correlations were found between ECAB and QUEST (ρ  =  0.823, p < 0.001), ECAB and PEDI-CAT (ρ  =  0.781, p < 0.01), and QUEST and PEDI-CAT (ρ  =  0.872, p < 0.001). Regression models explained 69.3% of the variance in PEDI-CAT and 73.6% in QUEST scores. Multiple linear regression was significant only for the MACS to predict the functional independence (PEDI-CAT) and upper limb skills (QUEST).

CONCLUSION

Postural control significantly correlates with both the UL skills and functional independence in children with CP.