比較青春前期腦性麻痺與正常發展兒童之身體組成

Background & Purpose: Body composition is an essential element of the health-related physical fitness, also an indicator of growth and nutritional status in children. Foreign studies showed pre-pubertal children with cerebral palsy had poor growth and nutritional problems. Few native studies evaluate the characteristic s of body composition in children with cerebral palsy. The purpose of this study was to compare the body composition between the pre-pubertal children with cerebral palsy and normally developed children. Method s: Seventy-four pre-pubertal children with cerebral palsy (mean age =6.4±1.4 years) and 93 normally developed pre -pubertal children (mean age=6.1±1.1 years) were recruited in this cross-sectional study. Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the various variables of body composition between two groups of subjects, including the body mass index, weight-for-length index, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-hip ratio, triceps skinfold thickness, subscapular skinfold thickness, suprailiac skinfold thickness, and calf skinfold thickness. Results: All variables of body composition in pre-pubertal children with cerebral palsy were significantly smaller than those of the normally developed pre-pubertal children (p＜0.05), excepted for the suprailiac skinfold thickness and the waist-hip ratio. Conclusions: Body composition of the pre-pubertal children with cerebral palsy is significantly different from that of the normally developed pre-pubertal children. Future studies on influencing factors on body composition in pre-pubertal children with cerebral palsy are suggested.