Background: Children who suffer from cerebral palsy (CP) may face motor deficits that impact their gross motor function (GMF), resulting in restricted engagement in certain activities. These motor deficits may also negatively affect bone health, raising the risk of skeletal problems and reducing bone mineral density (BMD).Purpose: to study the relation between BMD and GMF in CP children (ambulant and non-ambulant).Methods: Cross sectional correlational study was conducted on 70 CP children (35 ambulant group A and 35 non-ambulant group B), their age were from 7-10 years old. Their level of GMF from level I to level V , their BMI were underweighted, Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) was used to evaluate BMD, while GMFM-88 was used to measure GMF. An unpaired t test was used to compare the two groups' BMD and GMFM-88 scores. The association between BMD and GMFM-88 was ascertained using the Pearson association Coefficient.Results:The unpaired t-test analysis showed that There was a significant increase in BMD (right, left femur and spine L1-L4) and GMFM-88 of group A compared with that of group B (p < 0.001). The correlation between BMD and GMFM-88 was moderate positive significant correlation with right femur BMD (r = 0.645, p = 0.001), left femur BMD (r = 0.678, p = 0.001), and with Spine L1-L4 (r = 0.452, p = 0.001).
Conclusion: Ambulant CP children has better BMD and GMF than non-ambulant CP, there is moderate relationship between BMD and GMF in CP children , also improved GMF affect directly on bone health