Subjective measurement of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy: a scoping review

Physical activity is essential for maintaining overall health. Cost-effective and easily administered outcome instruments are valuable for clinical practice and large-scale population studies. The scoping review aimed to identify and map subjective instruments developed or validated to measure habitual physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy aged 0–18 years across all levels of the GMFCS-E&R. This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and searched the databases PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, Embase and Pedro to identify articles. From 288 full-text references, 13 studies met the inclusion criteria. Nine instruments measured habitual physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy aged 18 months to 18 years. Six subjective instruments were tested for ambulatory children, while three instruments were tested in children and adolescents at GMFCS-E&R level I–V. Reporting of the psychometric properties were found on reliability in three instruments, while data on validity were reported in all instruments. Further studies assessing the psychometric properties of subjective instruments in the target population are needed. Subjective instruments allow for monitoring of physical activity levels in children with cerebral palsy (CP).Personal perceptions of physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour can be assessed using subjective instruments.Caution should be exercised when using subjective instruments to measure physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour, as knowledge about their validity and reliability is limited. Subjective instruments allow for monitoring of physical activity levels in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Personal perceptions of physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour can be assessed using subjective instruments. Caution should be exercised when using subjective instruments to measure physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour, as knowledge about their validity and reliability is limited.