Mendeley  

Zotero  

Akbar E, Abutorabi Zarchi H, Namiranian N, Abutorabi Zarchi M. The Effect of 8-week Aquatic and Terrestrial Exercises on Functional Balance and Psychological Factors of Spastic Cerebral Palsy Girls. Func Disabil J 2019; 2 (1) :125-132
URL: http://fdj.iums.ac.ir/article-1-103-en.html

Background: Considering the stature problems and the insufficient levels of physical activity in people with cerebral palsy, balance and its influencing factors can play an important role in these patients’ activities. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of eight weeks of aquatic and terrestrial trainings on the functional balance and psychological factors of spastic cerebral palsy girls.
Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted based on a pretest-posttest design. We investigated 19 girls with diplegia and quadriplegia spastic cerebral palsy who aged from 8-15 years and lived in Yazd, Iran. The participants were selected based on the available population and categorized into two groups of terrestrial training (N = 10) and aquatic training (N = 9). Both groups received training for eight weeks (three times a week). In order to evaluate the participants’ functional balance, Berg’s functional balance test was performed for both groups before and after the intervention. In addition, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21) were applied to study the psychological factors of both groups before and after the intervention. To analyze the data, the Shapiro-Wilk test, independent t-test, and dependent t-test were used.
Results: The results showed that both terrestrial and aquatic training groups improved considering functional balance, but this improvement was just significant in aquatic training group (P=0.042). However, no significant difference was observed in the psychological factors as well as depression, anxiety, and stress.
Conclusion: We suggest aquatic trainings to improve the functional balance.