Factors Affecting Mothers’ Adherence to Home Exercise Programs Designed for Their Children with Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is a common motor disorder that results in long-term impairment. The purpose of this study was to find out what factors influence Saudi mothers’ compliance with their Children with Cerebral Palsy (C-CP) Home Exercise Program (HEP). A self-administered online questionnaire was used to perform this qualitative research study on a group of 113 mothers who had children with CP. The study included mothers with children from birth to 12 years old who had received a HEP prescription from a physiotherapist. The measuring instrument tool was a questionnaire with two sections: demographic characteristics and a questionnaire about the parents’ adherence to the HEP. The questionnaire utilized in this study was subjected to a reliability analysis, and the derived Cronbach’s alpha was found to be 0.814 for the questionnaire (which had 17 phrases). These results imply that the questionnaire is reliable. A total of 113 responses were received, with 4 incomplete responses being eliminated. The majority of mothers (66.1%) did not follow the HEP, according to the findings of this survey. The demographics of the mothers revealed that 20–25-year-old mothers were more adherent than the other age groups. The findings of this study demonstrated that the physical therapist’s treatment of the mother influenced exercise compliance.

The psychosocial determinants of adherence to home-based rehabilitation strategies in parents of children with cerebral palsy: A systematic review

“…The current review also noted that factors such as social support and self-efficacy were sometimes assessed using a single item derived from related validated scales, which may not effectively capture the target concepts [ 32 , 35 , 37 ]. Other research efforts have tried to mitigate these issues by developing new measures based on existing scales or theories in the scientific literature [ 22 , 35 , 37 ] or by pre-testing and piloting the scales.…”

“…These studies suggested that parental education helps parents feel less anxious about injuring or causing harm to their children. Further, the association between the caregiver’s age and HEPA was inconsistent [ 22 , 34 , 35 , 39 ]. Only one study out of four indicated significant positive associations [ 34 ].…”

“…HEP can constitutes 50–80% of total therapy received by C-CP [ 17 ] and has been shown to not only benefit the children but also increase parental satisfaction, according to Novak [ 21 ]. Furthermore, HEP is crucial for families as it saves time and money, involves parents in treatment decisions and allows them to choose the best options for their child [ 1 , 22 ].…”

The psychosocial determinants of adherence to home-based rehabilitation strategies in parents of children with cerebral palsy: A systematic review

“…[34] The current review found that factors such as social support and self-e cacy were also assessed by a single item derived from their related validated scales that may not effectively assess target concepts. [33,35] Other research attempted to address these concerns by developing new measures based on existing scales or theories in the scienti c literature [20,33,35] or by pretesting and piloting the scales.…”

“…[33,35] Further, parents who were motivated by the therapist advised to insert exercises into daily routines, assessed their skills, or asked about adherence at home by their therapists were more likely to comply with home exercises. [20,33,35,38,40,42] Yet, some authors [43] have highlighted the risk that this follow-up may lead to stress and feelings of guilt in parents. Similarly, Lillo-Navarro and his colleagues [35] suggested that healthcare providers must be aware of this circumstance to be perceived as a source of assistance rather than a judgemental bystander.…”