Assessing Motor Function in Congenital Muscular Dystrophy Patients Using Accelerometry.
Tokunbor A Lawal, Joshua J Todd, Jeffrey S Elliott and 13 others
PMID 32511172WHAT IT FOUND
Waist accelerometers were tolerated in ambulatory children with congenital muscular dystrophy but counted fewer steps than manual counts; low-frequency settings improved capture, yet step counts did not match.
Most daily activity was sedentary.
Key findings
01ActiGraph counted 411 ± 74 steps, compared with 699 ± 43 manually counted steps, and the difference was significant (P = .004).
02With the low-frequency extension, ActiGraph counted 587 ± 40 steps versus 699 ± 43 manually counted steps (P = .03), but the two methods were not equivalent.
03During valid free-living wear, more than 80% of motion intensity was sedentary (86.88%), and less than 4% was moderate to vigorous (1.92%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only nine ambulatory participants were studied, and only six wore the device for seven days, so the results are preliminary and may not apply to nonambulatory patients or broader populations. The study did not adjust for multiple statistical tests, so some findings need confirmation. The activity cut-points were validated in adults with musculoskeletal pain and mobility limitations, not in children. The device was removed before bedtime, so bedtime and wake-time activity were missing. Bilateral Trendelenburg gait and slow walking likely caused the step undercount, so the findings may not generalize to people without those gait features.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that waist-worn accelerometry can replace manual step counting in ambulatory children with CMD. The device counted fewer steps than manual counting, and the authors stated the methods should not be considered equivalent.