Musculoskeletal Diseases Respiratory
Conditions
Interventions
Questionnaire
Sponsors
None self funded
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Children, adolescents, and adults of all races and sexes, who have a confirmed diagnosis of NMD and are registered with the MDFSA. Children and adolescents who are unable to read, write, and/or use a computer due to physical and/or cognitive impairment will be included, with parents or primary caregivers providing proxy responses. Willing individuals who provide voluntary, written, informed consent/assent.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Individuals with chronic respiratory conditions (such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, etc.) and any other neurological disorders, in addition to NMD (such as Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome, and stroke), will be excluded from participation as neurological and/or respiratory co-morbidities will affect the respiratory symptoms, assessment and treatment practices assessed in this study. The aim is to determine the standard of care for patients with NMD, and other co-morbidities will influence the frequency of respiratory assessment and management provided.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Descriptive statistics will be used to summarise participant characteristics and questionnaire responses. Categorical variables, such as demographic characteristics, types of respiratory symptoms, assessments and interventions received, and reported barriers to care, will be presented as frequencies and percentages. Continuous variables, including age, number of healthcare visits, and frequency of respiratory and healthcare assessment and treatment sessions, will be summarised using means and standard deviations (SD) for normally distributed data or medians and interquartile ranges (IQR) when data are not normally distributed. Results will be displayed in tables, graphs, and charts to illustrate key findings and patterns in respiratory assessment and management practices among individuals with NMD in SA. Inferential statistical analyses will be conducted in an exploratory rather than confirmatory manner in order to explore associations between demographic or clinical characteristics and reported practices or outcomes. Chi-square tests or Fisher’s exact tests will be used to assess potential associations between categorical variables (e.g., province vs. access to physiotherapy services), while t-tests or ANOVA will be applied to compare continuous outcomes across groups, where data meet normality assumptions. Mann–Whitney U or Kruskal–Wallis tests will be used for non-parametric comparisons. Correlation analyses (e.g., Spearman’s rho) may be performed to assess relationships between functional status and healthcare utilisation. All statistical tests will be two-sided, and a p-value < 0.05 will be considered statistically significant. All analyses will be conducted on Excel and STATA version 18. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| There will not be a secondary data outcome | — |
Countries
South Africa
Contacts
Public ContactAnri Human
Senior lecturer
Outcome results
None listed