Affiliations: [a] Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey | [b] Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Hacettepe University, Turkey
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Ozgun Kaya Kara, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hacettepe University, 06100 Ankara, Turkey. Tel.: +90 312 3051478; Fax: +90 312 3052012; E-mail: ozgun_kaya@yahoo.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate performance (touch-coordinate errors, inter-touch interval) of touch screen technology in adolescents with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (USCP) and healthy peers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective case-control study included 31 adolescents. The participants consisted of 15 adolescents with CP in the USCP group and 16 age-matched healthy peers in the control group. All participants performed an aiming-tapping task with an Android tablet. Four sessions were randomly applied: visual feedback (VF) and no VF with the dominant hand’s index finger (DHF), and VF and no VF with the non-dominant hand’s index finger (NDHF). Inter-touch interval (ITI) and touch-coordinate errors (TCE) were calculated. RESULTS: There were significant differences between the groups for VF and no VF-NDHF TCE and ITI (respectively p= 0.001, p= 0.01, p= 0.001, p= 0.004) and VF and no VF-DHF TCE values (respectively p= 0.01, p= 0.008). When comparing the dominant and non-dominant hand in the USCP group, there was a significant difference on TCE with no VF (p= 0.01). CONCLUSION:This study provided insight into the touch screen performance of adolescents with USCP, who performed an aiming-tapping task with a tablet. Results showed that both affected and unaffected hand performance of touch screen tasks was impaired in adolescents with USCP.
