PEDI Article Summary
The purpose of the article is to explore the effects that sensory processing has on functional performance and quality of life in individuals with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP) vs. typically developing children (TD). The participants consisted of 53 children, 29 with UCP and 24 TD. The Child Sensory Profile was used to measure sensory processing in the study, the PEDI was used to measure functional performance and the Kidscreen was used to measure quality of life. No interventions took place in this study, as the purpose was to collect data using the various outcome measures and then to analyze the results. The study found that the UCP children scored worse in all three variables than the control TD group.
One of the strengths of this study was that they were actually able to find a control group and a case group that were almost even in size which allowed there to not be a disparity in the averages. I believe another strength is that they utilized a different outcome measure for each variable they were looking to measure rather than making an attempt to generalize their results with one large outcome measure. A limitation of this study is that all the children completed the CSP, but only 49 did the PEDI and 36 did the Kidscreen, which could lead to a skew in the results. As a general critique of how it was written and put together, the figures do not offer much real data and seem more like filler than anything.
In conclusion, based on the results of this study each of the three outcome measures possesses some validity to evaluate their respective variable. In the discussion, the authors tied each variable and the concomitant result to an aspect of the children’s life where it would have an effect. Given this association, the data does have implications of everyday life for these children rather than simply being clinical data.
4 responses to “PEDI Article Summary”
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I agree with you that a large strength of this study would be the size of each group. What were the age ranges portrayed in each group? Do you believe the ages could’ve played a role in the outcomes gathered? I would think that functional performance and quality of life could vary greatly depending on what stage of life you may be in, however that may not be pertinent considering the purpose of this study was to compare those with CP to those with TD. Maybe a future study could examine these same outcome measures within the CP group and focus on differing age ranges to evaluate how outcomes may evolve with aging.
The age range was 6-15 years old, I think they absolutely could have played a role!
What was the age range of participants? I would think that if some participants were fairly young, while others were teenagers there would be an impact on the data due to age-related differences in function and body systems development. May not be a huge impact, but potentially something to consider.
The age range was 6-15 years old. I think you may be on to something with your theory!