Feasibility and effectiveness of home-based therapy programmes for children with cerebral palsy: A systematic review

Objective: To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of home-based occupational therapy and physiotherapy programmes in children with cerebral palsy (CP), focusing on the upper extremity and reporting on child-related and/or parent-related outcomes. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: Electronic searches were performed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, OTseeker and PEDro, and in ICTRP and CENTRAL trial registers, from inception to 6 June 2019. Eligible criteria: The review included all types of original studies concerning feasibility or effectiveness of home-based therapy in children aged 40 different child-related outcome measures were found. Overall, an improvement in arm-hand performance within group across time was shown. Only two studies reported on a parent-related outcome measure. No increase in parental stress was found during the intervention. Conclusions: Based on the results of the included studies, home-based training programmes seem to be feasible. However, conclusions about the effectiveness of home programmes cannot be made due to the large variability in the study, patient and intervention characteristics, comparators, and outcome measures used in the included studies. PROSPERO registration number CRD42016043743