Happiness may not correlate with mobility in pediatric patients with physical disabilities

Key takeaways:

Pediatric patients with physical disabilities had limited mobility and higher pain scores vs. typically developing youth.
Results showed happiness did not correlate with motor function.

Surestep

By Casey Tingle, Fact checked by Gina Brockenbrough, MA Heaio Orthopedics Today May 17, 2024

Although children with physical disabilities had lower health-related quality of life measures vs. their peers, results showed such patients had minimal differences in happiness that did not correlate with functional mobility.

“We need to figure out what are the factors that influence the psychosocial well-being of the youth with physical disabilities,” L. Reid Nichols, MD, FAOA, FAAOS, orthopedic surgeon at Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware, told Healio about results presented at the Combined EPOSNA Meeting. “This study emphasizes the importance of individualized care when evaluating and treating both the physical and the psychosocial needs of the youth with physical disabilities.”

Nichols and colleagues retrospectively compared parent- or patient-reported Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI) scores between patients aged 2 to 18 years with Morquio Syndrome, arthrogryposis, cerebral palsy or achondroplasty and typically developing youth. Researchers categorized patients into groups based on age (aged 2 to 10 years vs. aged 11 to 18 years) and compared PODCI scores between each age and disability group. They also compared PODCI scores with physical therapist recorded Gross Motor Function Measure Dimension-D scores (GMFM-D), which assessed standing activities.

“There are 13 activities, including independent standing, single-leg balance and sit-to-stand, vs. what the parents were reporting and the adolescent self-report versions,” Nichols said. “We asked about five demands of function plus global function domain, which averages all of those scores.”

Results showed patients with Morquio syndrome, arthrogryposis, cerebral palsy and achondroplasty had limited mobility and higher pain scores compared with typically developing youth. Researchers also found children and adolescents with cerebral palsy or arthrogryposis and children with Morquio syndrome experienced less happiness vs. typically developing youth. However, Nichols said happiness scores were only significantly different in patients with achondroplasty or cerebral palsy.

“If you look at the comparison of the transfer and basic mobility scores between each group, we see that the [patients with achondroplasty] show the highest level on the GMF score. They do the best with the physical functioning,” Nichols said.

According to Nichols, global functioning had good correlation with GMFM. Researchers found no correlation between happiness and motor function, as well as pain reports and gross motor function.

“High GMF did not mean lower pain scores,” Nichols said. “If they were functioning better, it doesn’t mean they necessarily had less pain or happiness.”

Source Healio

References

Church C, et al. Paper 89. Presented at: Combined EPOSNA Meeting; May 8-11, 2024; National Harbor, Maryland.