Cerebral palsy and Down syndrome are two conditions that present with a deficit in motor development. Treadmill interventions were found to improve this delay in development. This work aimed to describe and analyze the methodological quality of studies that applied treadmill interventions alone or combined with other therapies to promote gait and balance in children under 12 years of age with cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. A systematic review was made in different databases: PubMed, PEDro, Cochrane and ScienceDirect. Only randomized clinical trials published to date were selected. The methodological quality of the identified studies was assessed using the PEDro scale. Of the 324 articles initially found, 10 were selected, which met the established inclusion criteria for qualitative analysis. The variables analyzed were gait and balance in both populations after the treadmill intervention, with and without suspension of body weight. The main conclusion was that the application of a treadmill alone is an effective intervention to promote the development of gait and balance in children under 12 years with cerebral palsy and Down syndrome.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher