Correlation between hand function and activities of daily living in children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Introduction: Aim of this study was investigating the correlation between hand function and activities of daily living in children with cerebral palsy. Patient and method:15 children with bilateral or unilateral cerebral palsy in GMFCS level I, II or III were included the study. The subjects were being treated according to the Bobath concept. We used Manual Ability Classification Sys-tem (MACS) for assessing hand functions and Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM) for assessing independence in daily living activities. Results: Subjects mean age was 120.4 (SD 31.69) months. According to MACS, 7 subjects were both in Level I and II, and 1 subject was in Level III. According to GMFCS, 3 sub-jects were in level I, 8 subjects were in level II, and 4 subjects were in level III. Mean WeeFIM total point was 112.06 (SD13.34). Results of correlation analysis showed that there was a statistically significant negative strong correlation between GMFCS and WeeFIM scores, and negative weak correlation(r=-0.286) between MACS and WeeFIM. Conclusions: There was a strong correlation between gross motor function skills and activities of daily living in children with cerebral palsy. There was a moderate correlation between hand functions and gross motor function skills, and a weak correlation between hand functions and independence in activities of daily living.