Correlation Between the Activities of Daily Living Assessment and Gross Motor Function Measures in Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Purpose: This study was to identify the whether there is any correlation between Gross Motor Function Measures (GMFM) and Functional independence Measurement for children (WeeFIM) in order to identify a relevance of daily life motor with gross motor function of children with cerebral palsy. Methods: Subjects were instructed to evaluated by an occupational therapist using WeeFIM (reliability 0.83-0.99) and by a physical therapist using GMFM (reliability 0.93). 10 male children and 13 female children among 23 children being diagnosed as cerebral palsy were targeted for this study. A correlation between GMFM and WeeFIM was analyzed with Kendall correlation. Results: Participants showed significant correlation between GMFM and WeeFIM in all categories, except in the GMFM’s walking· running·jumping category, standing category of GMFM and self care, sphincter control, communication category of WeeFIM. Lying·rolling and sitting and crawling· kneeling area of GMFM showed a significant correlation with self care(r=0.35, 0.39, 0.4), sphincter control (r=0.45, 0.43, 0.61), mobility transfer (r=0.44, 0.36, 0.64), locomotion (r=0.41, 0.35, 0.74), communication (r=0.4, 0.44, 0.51), and social cognition (r=0.43, 0.51, 0.64) area of WeeFIM (p<0.05). Standing of GMFM and mobility transfer (r=0.74), locomotion (r=0.47) and social cognition (r=0.4) area of WeeFIM showed a significant correlation (p<0.05). Conclusion: These findings indicated significant correlation between activity of daily living (ADL) and gross motor function of children with cerebral palsy. However, because there are a few results that are not significant, both assessment tools should be used for evaluations so that treatment can be achieved with an accurate assessment and establish a therapeutic plan.