Exercise program benefits kids with cerebral palsy

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The addition of an exercise training program to the standard care of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy improves their physical fitness and quality of life, according to a Dutch study.

Olaf Verschuren, of the Rehabilitation Center "De Hoogstraat" in Utrecht, and colleagues recruited 86 children between 7 and 18 years old with cerebral palsy to evaluate the effects of an exercise training program over an 8-month period.

The children either took part in the exercise program or received just their usual rehabilitation care. The exercise program involved group circuit training that focused on aerobic and anaerobic exercises. Two training sessions were given per week, each lasting 45 minutes.

Significant improvements in aerobic and anaerobic capacity were found for patients in the training group, the researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. A significant benefit was also seen for agility, muscle strength, and athletic competence.

On health-related quality-of-life measures, those dealing with movement ability, autonomy, and cognition all improved significantly.

However, "The benefits that children gained during training were only partially maintained at follow-up," Verschuren and colleagues report. "It seems very difficult for children with cerebral palsy to maintain the gains of an exercise program."

"Consequently," they conclude, "children with cerebral palsy must continue their training to maintain their fitness levels."

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, November, 2007.