Clinical tools to assess posture in children with cerebral palsy: A systematic review

The goal of this comprehensive evaluation of the literature is to evaluate the methodological quality of the tools available for measuring a child’s posture in relation to cerebral palsy (CP) in accordance with the consensus-based criteria for selection of health measurement instruments (COSMIN) criteria and checklist. The following inclusion criteria were applied while screening studies found in the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus databases to determine their eligibility: (1) Clinical examinations of the posture of children with CP; (2) age of 3 years or more at all gross motor function classification system levels; (3) posture evaluation measures described; (4) statistics on responsiveness, validity, and reliability for children with CP; and (5) published in peer-reviewed English-language journals. Data on study features, tool or scale characteristics, and study outcomes were evaluated and discussed. The “quality of research” was evaluated using the COSMIN. Seven tools were found and included in this study out of 349,928 studies. Of these, three were observational measurements and four were instruments. The quality of the studies was very good in 40%, adequate in another 40%, and inadequate in the rest of the 20% studies. The evidence’s level of quality for the posture assessment tool’s measurement quality ranged from very low to low. However, none of the tools evaluated every COSMIN-recommended property. There was a lack of evidence about these measures’ responsiveness. Research on the measuring quality of tools used to evaluate posture in children with CP is scarce and of low quality. In accordance with the COSMIN guidelines, additional studies are required. The PROSPERO database has this review registered under the number CRD42022333121.