Research
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The Effect of Hippotherapy on Ten children with Cerebral Palsy

Renee Casady PT MS HPCS and Deb Nichols-Larson PhD PT

Purpose: To determine whether hippotherapy (hpot) has an effect on the functional development of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: A repeated-measures design with two pretests and two posttests conducted at 10 week intervals using the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) and Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) as outcome measures. Ten children with CP participated, ages 2.3 – 6.8 at baseline. Subjects received hpot once a week for ten weeks between pretest 2 and posttest 1. Test scores on the PEDI and GMFM were compared before and after hpot. Results: One way analysis of variance of group mean scores with repeated measures was significant (p<.05) for all PEDI sub scales and all GMFM dimensions except lying/rolling. Post hoc analyses with the Tukey test for honest significant difference of PEDI and GMFM total measure as well as GMFM crawling/kneeling and PEDI social skills were statistically significant between pretest 2 and posttest 1. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that hpot has a positive effect on the functional motor performance of children with CP. Hippotherapy appears to be a viable treatment strategy for therapists with experience and training in this form of treatment and means of improving functional outcomes in children with CP. PEDIATRIC PHYSICAL THERAPY JOURNAL 2004;16:165-172.

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