AQUATIC INFLUENCE ON MOBILITY OF A CHILD WITH DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY: CASE STUDY

The study was initiated because one of the authors had a child in the family with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The author was concerned about what could be done to improve the quality of life of this child. The hypotheses explored whether hydrotherapy could bring any relief or advantage in functional mobility to an individual with DMD and whether a water environment facilitates mobility, pleasure, and joy for a young child with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Our sample had three individuals, all of them boys, 9-11 years of age. Two were the control group and didn’t practice any kind of physical activity and the other one was our two-year longitudinal case study during which he experienced hydrotherapy practice two times a week for forty-five minutes each. We applied the Egen Klassifikation (EK) scale to quantify the degree of movement limitation present at each of five measurement points over the two years. The variables analyzed were the physical activity issues and the EK scale values. The descriptive results showed that all three individuals increased their EK scale values over time, showing the inevitable progression of the disease. The individual who participated in the water activity sessions had the slower increase that we inferred, meant less deterioration in functional movement. No inferences can be drawn from these limited data, especially because only one individual experienced the water activities. This study does provide the impetus for subsequent, larger controlled studies to see if they could replicate these initial case study results.