The Effect of Therapeutic Climbing on Muscle Strength, Tone and Balance in Hemiplegic Children

December 19, 2025 updated by: Pavlos Kitixis

The Effect of Therapeutic Climbing on Muscle Strength, Tone and Balance in Hemiplegic Children: a Preliminary Single-blind Randomised Controlled Trial

The goal of this randomised controlled trial is to learn about the effect of therapeutic climbing in hemiplegic children. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does climbing affect muscle strength and tone? What is its connection between normative data drawn from healthy children? How can it affect balance?

Participants (children) will be asked to complete an series of movements used in sports climbing, such as inside-flag, back-flag and horizontal traverse, while hanging on an in-door climbing wall.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

12

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Greece
    • Phthiotis
      • Lamia, Phthiotis, Greece, 35100
        • Department of Physiotherapy

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Children from 4 to 16 years old
  • Children with Hemiplegia
  • Evaluated as Level 1 on GMFCS

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Botulinum toxin injection in last 6 months
  • Surgery in the last 1 year (myofascial lengthening etc.)
  • Children with poor cognitive skills (not following instructions etc.)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control Group
The participants in this group continue their conventional intervention protocol without using the climbing instructions.
Experimental: Climbing Group
The participants in this group continue their conventional intervention protocol plus an in-door climbing intervention protocol.
Other: Therapeutic Climbing
The protocol consists of using an in-door climbing wall as an complementary therapeutic intervention model.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Muscle Strength
Time Frame: 8 weeks (pre-post evaluation)
Measured using Kinvent K-PUSH Dynamometer and Jamar Hydraulic Hand Dynamometer ; Unit of Measure: Peak Force in Kilograms (higher scores - better outcome)
8 weeks (pre-post evaluation)
Balance
Time Frame: 8 weeks (pre-post evaluation)
Measured using the Timed Up & Go Test ; Unit of Measure: seconds of completion (higher scores - worse outcome)
8 weeks (pre-post evaluation)
Muscle Tone
Time Frame: 8 weeks (pre-post evaluation)
Evaluated using the Modified Ashworth Scale ; Unit of Measure: Scoring Options (0-4) // (higher scores - worse outcome)
8 weeks (pre-post evaluation)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Normative Strength Data Comparison
Time Frame: 8 weeks (pre-post evaluation)
Comparison of normative values of the Jamar Hydraulic Hand Dynamometer of Healthy and Hemiplegic Children ; Unit of Measure: Difference of Peak Force in Kilograms
8 weeks (pre-post evaluation)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Pavlos Kitixis

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Thomas Besios, PhD, University of Thessaly

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 10, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 31, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

September 20, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 30, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 6, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

August 9, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 29, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 19, 2025

Last Verified

May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • climb_in_hem

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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