Grip strength of family caregivers of people with severe cerebral palsy rated to GMFCS level IV and V

BACKGROUND: It is little known about the physical strength of family caregivers who care for the people with severe cerebral palsy. The aim of this study was to investigate grip strength of family caregivers who cared for the people with severe cerebral palsy at home. METHODS: Study participants were 70 women (51.1 +/- 9.6 years) who cared for people with severe cerebral palsy rated to Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) level IV and V at home and 32 women (48.3 +/- 11.8 years) who were not caregivers. All the people with severe cerebral palsy had a place to go during daytime on weekdays. The setting of the cross-sectional and correlative study were a rehabilitation center and university. Grip strength of both right and left hand was measured twice using a grip dynamometer nearest to 0.5 kg. The strongest grip strength was taken for the analysis.RESULTS: All the family caregivers had grip strength more than 18 kg that was one of criteria for diagnosis of sarcope-nia defined by Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia. And the grip strength of both family caregivers and women in the control group fell in line with the reference data collected by Japan Sports Agency.CONCLUSIONS: The grip strength was kept very good in the family caregivers. The results did not show that family caregiving had so much impact upon preventing aging-related reduction of grip strength even though caring for the people with severe cerebral palsy could demand great physical task. As our study participants were free from caregiv-ing during daytime at home, it was quite likely that they had not only good grip strength but also good overall physical strength, which we should confirm in the future studies.