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Updated: May 27, 2026
Event-related Potentials During Target-response Tasks to Study Cognitive Processes of Upper Limb Use in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy
Published on: January 11, 2016
Time use patterns in ambulatory adolescents with cerebral palsy
1Health and Use of Time (HUT) Group, Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia. carol.maher@unisa.edu.au
Background:
No studies to date have examined the daily time spent across a variety of activity types (sleep, screen time, physical activity, domestic and school-related) in children with cerebral palsy (CP).
Aim:
To investigate the activity patterns of adolescents with CP and contrast them with those of typically developing (TD) adolescents, using a use-of-time approach.
Methods:
Forty-one Australian adolescents with CP and 82 TD adolescents matched for age, sex, weight status and socio-economic status undertook structured interviews using a validated computerized use of time recall administered over 4 days. Time devoted to sleep, screen time, physical activity, domestic and school-related activity were compared using anova and Mann-Whitney tests.
Results:
Adolescents with CP spent less time in physical activity (91 vs. 147 min/day, P= 0.0003), and in particular, its sub-components of active transport (28 vs. 52 min/day, P= 0.0013) and team sports (25 vs. 39 min/day, P= 0.04). They experienced significantly more quiet time (116 vs. 80 min/day, P= 0.0025) but spent less time in social interaction (6 vs. 22 min/day, P= 0.0016). There were no significant differences in sleep, screen time, domestic activities or school-related time.
Conclusions:
By and large, the activity patterns of ambulatory adolescents with CP were similar to their TD peers. Results highlight physical activity in younger adolescents (11-13 years) as an area for targeted interventions.
