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Rate ePoster

Musculoskeletal and Sports Medicine

Adaptive Sports Rehabilitation for Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis

Thursday, October 23, 2025
12:45 PM - 2:15 PM MT
Location: Original Research Theater

    Poster Presenter(s)

  • Milan Patel, Other

    Medical Student
    Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine New York
    Newburgh, New York

    • Co-Author(s)

  • JL

    Justin Le, Other

    Medical Student
    Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine
    Blackwood, New Jersey

  • AA

    Andrew Atschinow, Other

    Medical Student
    Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine
    Colts Neck, New Jersey

  • NR

    Naomi V. Rosario, Other

    Researcher
    University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
    Hilton, New York

  • Anish Rana, BA

    Medical Student
    University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
    Rochester, New York

  • GS

    Gilbert Siu, DO, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Rowan University School of Osteopathic Med
    Mantua, New Jersey

Disclosure(s):
Milan Patel, Other: No financial relationships to disclose
Justin Le, Other: No financial relationships to disclose
Anish Rana, BA: No financial relationships to disclose
Background and/or Objectives: Adaptive sports provide a variety of therapeutic effects for persons with disabilities. Children with cerebral palsy (CP) represent a unique patient population with a range of motor impairments potentially benefiting from adaptive sports participation. However, there is a lack of comprehensive research evaluating the effects of adaptive sports rehabilitation on motor function outcomes compared to control in this group. This study aims to address this gap by systematically reviewing the impact of adaptive sports on motor function outcomes in CP.

Design: This review adhered to PRISMA 2020 guidelines for systematic reviews. A search string was used to allocate articles from PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane. The studies included a randomized control trial and single group pre-post study.

Setting : Rehabilitation centers, sports training arenas, or outpatient settings.

Participants : Children with spastic CP.

Interventions: Structured adaptive sports rehabilitation programs designed to improve motor function and physical activity levels.

Main Outcome Measures: Gross Motor Function Measure Score (GMFM-88) at 10 and 12 weeks.

Results: The adaptive intervention group demonstrated moderate improvement in GMFM-88 scores (d = 0.713, 95% CI: -0.054 to 1.479, p = 0.068), compared to the non-adaptive control group, which showed a smaller effect size (d = 0.317, 95% CI: -0.406 to 1.039, p = 0.390). The overall effect size across studies was d = 0.503 (95% CI: -0.023 to 1.029, p = 0.061), with no significant heterogeneity detected (I² = 0.00, p = 0.73).

Conclusions: Overall, adaptive sports moderately improved GMFM-88 in children with CP; however, neither treatment was significantly better. Several limitations exist, including limited studies, small sample sizes, differing time points of measurement, and lack of standardization among protocols. Our results suggest that available literature remains limited, and more robust, high-powered studies are needed to understand the impact of adaptive sports on recovery in children with CP.