Short-term causal effects of common treatments in ambulatory children and young adults with cerebral palsy: three machine learning estimates.

ABSTRACT: Orthopedic and neurological impairments (e.g., muscle contractures, spasticity) are often treated in children and young adults with cerebral palsy (CP). Due to challenges arising from combinatorics, research funding priorities, and medical practicalities, and despite extensive study, the evidence base is weak. Our goal was to estimate the short-term effectiveness of 13 common orthopedic and neurological treatments at four different levels of outcome in children and young adults diagnosed with CP. The outcome levels considered were body structures, specific gait kinematic deviations, overall gait kinematic deviations, and functional mobility. We used three well-establish causal inference approaches (direct matching, virtual twins, and Bayesian causal forests) and a large clinical gait analy

SUBMITTER: Schwartz MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9098860 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature