Physical activity and physical fitness in children with chronic conditions

Physical activity and physical fitness in children with chronic conditions

In children with a chronic condition, physical activity (PA) and physical fitness is reduced compared to healthy controls. As a consequence, children with a chronic condition are restricted in their social participation. Low PA and low physical fitness increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. It is assumed that children with a chronic condition experience the same health benefits from PA as healthy children, which is why there is a strong shift towards stimulating physical activity in children with a chronic condition.Despite stimulating PA in children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), these children are less active and spent more time on sedentary activities compared to healthy controls. Children after a liver transplantation are on the same activity and fitness level as norm values. Unfortunately, both patient groups did not reach the recommendations (i.e. one hour of moderate to vigorous PA seven days each week). For children with a chronic condition, it is sometimes difficult to participate in regular sport programmes. Stimulating PA for health benefits is a challenge, additionally intensity and activity duration are difficult to measure objectively. One must take into account that physical activities require the appropriate motor skills for children to participate. A home-based exercise training program in children with Juvenile Dermatomyositis as well as an internet-based cognitive behavioural treatment program Rheumates@Work in children with JIA are safe, showing high adherence, but have no positive effect on increasing PA. Combining both programs might improve PA, but evaluation of such a program is needed.

Dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/11370/82d23ea9-3c16-4f6b-80c9-d1e29d9c45d7