Effects of Aquatic Therapy on Pain in Children with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities—A Prospective Observational Study

Background: Children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities are at risk of pain. Aquatic-therapy is a pain relief treatment. There is no data concerning the effect of aquatic-therapy on pain among this population. The study reports on the effect of aquatic-therapy on pain-related behaviours among children with profound intellectual disability. Method: Fifteen caregivers and 39 children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (age: 4 - 18 years) participated in this prospective observational monocentric study. All children participated in a weekly 30-minute aquatic-therapy session. The Non-Communicating-Children’s Pain-Checklist-Postoperative- Version (NCCPC-PV) was used. Data were collected four times: twice up to two hours after an aquatic-therapy session and twice at times not following an aquatic-therapy session. Results: Results indicate a significant difference between the NCCPC-PV score for up to two hours after aquatic-therapy and the NCCPC-PV mean score when not following aquatic-therapy (t = 3.784, p 0.01). Conclusions: This is an initial evidence that aquatic-therapy helps reduce pain for children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.