# Muscle Strength, Functional Capacity, and Quality of Life Responses to Pilates Exercises in Children with Burn Injuries: A Single-Blinded Randomized Clinical Trial

## TL;DR

Adding Pilates to traditional therapy improves muscle strength, function, and quality of life in children recovering from burns.

## Contribution

This study is the first to show Pilates improves recovery outcomes in children with burn injuries.

## Key findings

- Pilates group showed significantly better lower extremity muscle strength than traditional therapy alone.
- Functional capacity and quality of life scores were higher in the Pilates group after 12 weeks.
- No significant difference was found in the psychological subscale of quality of life between groups.

## Abstract

Burns are a common childhood injury that can affect physical health for a long time, which has an impact on quality of life. This study aimed to determine whether adding Pilates exercise to a traditional physical therapy program improves lower extremity muscle strength, functional capacity, and quality of life in burned children.

This single-blinded randomized clinical trial was conducted at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia from 2022 to 2023. A simple randomization method was followed in this study. The control group (n=30) received a traditional physical therapy program, while the Pilates group (n=30) received a Pilates training in addition to the traditional physical therapy program. All participants attended the intervention 3 days a week, for 12 weeks. Measurements were made at baseline and after 3 months of the intervention. The outcome measurements included muscle strength, functional capacity, and quality of life. The data were analyzed using SPSS software, using univariate analysis of variance with Bonferroni correction.

After intervention, there were statistically significant differences between groups, in favour of the Pilates group, in muscle strength, functional capacity (P<0.001),
with mean difference and 95% CI was 16.73 (6.95, 26.52), quality of life physical subscale (P=0.03) with mean difference and 95% CI was 6.83 (0.71, 12.96),
and quality of life total scores (P=0.02) with mean difference and 95% CI was 7.17 (1.34, 13.0). However, no statistically significant difference between groups on the quality-of-life psychological subscale (P=0.48).

Pilates exercises in addition to a traditional physical therapy program had a positive impact on the muscle strength of the lower limb, functional capacity, and quality of life in
children with burn injury compared with the traditional exercise program alone.

Trial Registration Number: NCT06237361.