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OBJECTIVESThe aims of this study were to identify the associations of levels of severity of neurodevelopmental disorders and disabilities (NDD/D) in children with their household socioeconomic status (SES) and their frequency of visits to a healthcare provider, and to examine how the severity of disability varied with these determinants among NDD/D subgroups, in order to inform possible social policy changes and to improve access to the healthcare system.METHODSData from the 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey on children aged 5-14 years, collected by Statistics Canada, were analyzed (n=7,072 and weighted n=340,340). Children with NDD/D constituted those with impairments in motor, speech, neurosensory, and psychological functioning, as well as those who had issues with learning/cognition and social interactions. The weighted sample size for this group was n=111,630 (total sample size for children with limitations: n=174,810). We used logistic regression to assess the associations of household SES and frequency of visits to a healthcare provider with disability level. We included NDD/D subgroups as interaction terms in the model. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was conducted to develop a profile of disability level.RESULTSAfter-tax low income, family assistance, out-of-pocket expenses, needing but not receiving health services from a social worker, condition of the dwelling, and residential location were associated with the severity of NDD/D. Using MCA, 2 disability profiles could be identified based on access to healthcare, household income status, and condition of the dwelling.CONCLUSIONSMore social interventions are needed to reduce difficulties in accessing healthcare and to diminish the socially determined health inequalities faced by children with NDD/D.

Several rehabilitation approaches have shown that robot-assisted therapy (robot-AT) can improve the quality of upper limb movements in children with cerebral palsy (CP). However, there is still no method for assessing upper limb motor function impairment using a combination of surface electromyography (sEMG) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors. The aim of this study was to develop a functional ability model to assess the effectiveness of robot-AT on improving upper limb function in children with CP. Fifteen healthy children and fifteen children with CP were included in this study. Children with CP performed eighteen robot-AT sessions and were evaluated twice, using EMG and three-axis IMU readings from accelerometer (IMU-ACC). Principal component analysis and the RELIEFF algorithm were used for dimensionality reduction of the feature space. The classification was performed by using support vector machines, linear discriminant analysis, and random forest. The proposed assessment method was evaluated by using leave-one-out cross validation. With this approach, it was possible to differentiate between healthy children and children with CP pre-robot-AT and post-robot-AT with an overall accuracy of 97.56%. This study suggests that there is potential for modeling the assessment of the upper limb motor function impairment in children with CP using sEMG and IMU-ACC sensors.

Brain plasticity is a complex mechanism which depends on a variety of environmental and external parameters, including physical activity. Thus, cerebral plasticity may be improved with increased physical activity as a complement to therapy or cognitive training in the case of mental health problems. Many correlations were already reported in the current literature between practice of exercise, and improvement of cognitive function, mental health and state of participants with neurodegenerative diseases. The current communication illustrates and simplifies some existing interaction between the cerebral plasticity in cortex and hippocampus; and the practice of physical activity with animal model or human participants.

The current advances in preventive research on neurodegenerative diseases affecting memory suggests greater efficacy of treatments; In the face of cognitive deficits and associated early symptoms such as memory loss and dementia of the Alzheimer or Parkinson type, or medium-and long-term memory impairment caused by genetic or environmental disorders. As a result, early identification of patients at risk and better approaches to preserve their cognitive performance is a major global health issue. Cerebral training through cognitive IQ tests and video games with a more or less realistic personalized simulation environment; Has become a promising avenue that neuroscientists have been exploring for some years. This brief communication is a mini review simplified of the recent scientific advances, on the surprising effects on the brain of a cognitive training by means of interactive simulations or video games.