Longitudinal decline in upper-limb range of motion in adults with cerebral palsy.
Erika Cloodt, Jenny Hedberg-Graff, Anna Lindgren and 4 others
PMID 40781986WHAT IT FOUND
Passive upper-limb range of motion steadily declines throughout adulthood in people with cerebral palsy.
The loss is fastest in those with the most limited hand function, where wrist extension can drop by more than a degree every year.
Key findings
01Passive range of motion in the shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist decreased with age across every level of manual ability.
02Declines were steepest in shoulder flexion, elbow extension and wrist extension for people in MACS levels IV and V.
03At the highest manual-ability level, wrist extension fell about 65 degrees across adulthood, from 15 degrees to −50 degrees.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Fewer participants were in the older age groups, so the later-life estimates are less precise. The number of measurements varied between people, and missing visits were assumed to be unrelated to the range of motion itself. Only one arm per person was measured, so the other side is not represented. The study recorded change over time but did not examine why range of motion fell, such as pain or arthritis. Most participants were under 40 years, so the oldest ages rest on comparatively few people. This is an observational registry cohort, not a trial, so it cannot say what prevents the decline.
Declared interests
The paper reports no funding source or conflict-of-interest declaration in the supplied text. It notes that Swedish healthcare is funded through taxation and that ethical approval came from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (no. 2023-01723-01).
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that stretching or any treatment slows the loss. No intervention was given or tested; the paper only describes how range of motion changed over time in a registry cohort.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →