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Quick, Effective Screening Tasks Identify Children With Medical Conditions or Disabilities Needing Physical Literacy
Patricia E Longmuir1,2,3, Adam Chubbs Payne1,2, Natalie Beshara1
1Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, ON,Canada.
Insights
Screening for physical literacy support in children is most effective using physical activity adequacy and screen time assessments. These tools identify children who may benefit from interventions to improve their active lifestyles.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Physical Activity and Public Health
- Developmental Pediatrics
Background:
- Identifying children needing physical literacy support is crucial for addressing health disparities.
- Medical conditions and disabilities can impact a child's participation in physical activity.
- Effective screening tools are needed for early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate screening tasks for identifying children who may benefit from physical literacy interventions.
- To determine the sensitivity and specificity of various screening measures.
Main Methods:
- Children completed up to 20 screening tasks during a clinic visit.
- The Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (2nd edition) was administered separately.
- Receiver operator characteristic curves were used to determine optimal cut points for screening.
Main Results:
- Physical activity adequacy, predilection, and competence showed high sensitivity and adequate specificity.
- Adequacy scores ≤ 6.5 demonstrated 86-100% sensitivity and 48-49% specificity.
- Combining daily screen time >4.9 hours with Adequacy ≤ 6.15 yielded 88-10% sensitivity and 53-56% specificity.
Conclusions:
- Physical activity adequacy, with or without screen time, is an effective screening method.
- Questionnaires assessing adequacy and screen time are suitable for clinical settings.
- Further research is needed to improve the specificity of screening tools.
Purpose:
This study evaluated screening tasks able to identify children with medical conditions or disabilities who may benefit from physical literacy.
Method:
Children completed ≤20 screening tasks during their clinic visit and then the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (2nd edition) at a separate visit. Total Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy scores <30th percentile were categorized as potentially needing physical literacy support. Receiver operator characteristic curves identified assessment cut points with 80% sensitivity and 40% specificity relative to total physical literacy scores.
Results:
223 children (97 girls; 10.1 [2.6] y) participated. Physical activity adequacy, predilection, and physical competence achieved ≥80% sensitivity and ≥40% specificity in both data sets. Adequacy ≤ 6.5 had 86% to 100% sensitivity and 48% to 49% specificity. Daily screen time >4.9 hours combined with Adequacy ≤6.15 had 88% to 10% sensitivity and 53% to 56% specificity.
Conclusions:
Activity adequacy, alone or with screen time, most effectively identified children likely to benefit from physical literacy support. Adequacy and screen time questionnaires are suitable for clinical use. Similar results regardless of diagnosis suggest physical competence deficits are not primary determinants of active lifestyles. Research to enhance screening specificity is required.
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