Standing Up for Cerebral Palsy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Standing up for Cerebral Palsy: Evaluation of a Standing Physical Activity Intervention
IRAS ID
251813
Contact name
Helen Dawes
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Young people who are more active tend to have better health and perform stronger academically. These effects last into adulthood affecting life chances. Young people with cerebral palsy (YPwCP) have lower endurance and greater muscular weakness than their non-disabled peers, which can be exacerbated by sedentary behaviors and lack of
physical activity. There is research evidence that YPwCP often develop secondary conditions such as chronic pain, fatigue, and osteoporosis as a result of low physical activity levels. Allowing YPwCP to engage in brief structured physical activity breaks in schools, could potentially enhance their physical, cognitive, academic, social performance, and legislative framework.Children who sit a lot and are less active are more likely to become overweight, insulin resistant and perform less well in academic subjects. School based activities enable all children to benefit, including those with disabilities. Recent data suggests that breaking sitting time with brief regular breaks of moderate intensity physical activity (PA), improves post-prandial insulin and glucose responses, which may be the possible mechanism driving cognitive improvements.
We will measure the effect of interrupting prolonged sitting with brief standing physical activity (PA) interventions in YPwCP.
(a) To assess the extent of the immediate and short-term effects of interrupting sitting with brief PA breaks of moderate/vigorous physical activity (MVPA) compared to a sitting only condition on cognitive performance, mobility, health and well-being.
(b) To assess if changes in insulin sensitivity mediate the immediate and short term effects of interrupting sitting time with PA breaks on physical, cognitive performance, health and well-being outcomes.
All of the researchers will have DBS clearance before commencement of the study. Any instance of safeguarding issues will be reported to chief investigator immediately who will take necessary actions.
Summary of Results
We finished the study with a total of 36 young people taking part. Recruitment was strong both from hospitals and schools, and we carried out testing sessions at either the University or at school, with positive feedback when we interviewed both young people and their parents/ carers. We are in the final stages of writing our first main publication. We will present these findings at conferences in the UK and potentially internationally. Our first aim was to test that it was possible to carry out the study, collect good data on health, activity and thinking, and then to see if different ways of breaking sitting time in a classroom setting could change attention, mental speed and concentration. We also looked to see if any of the changes were related to changes in blood glucose levels. We have been able to carry out the study and have observed important changes with the different physical activities that could benefit these young people. Due to COVID-19, the progress on finishing the data collection, analysis and writing the research publications was delayed slightly, however we are now back on track to disseminate our findings and carry out follow on work. We are in the early stages of planning the second paper that will be published from our data, and this will focus on health indicators such as body weight and blood pressure and the impact on metabolism including blood glucose levels and insulin of brief activity breaks from sitting in young people with CP. We have produced ‘feedback’ sheets for each child based on their results from the study, and are producing a video with the overall results to present the impact of breaking sitting time on thinking in young people with CP.REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SW/0200
Date of REC Opinion
26 Sep 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion