Physical activity and quality of life among children with CHD: a cross-sectional analysis

To describe the quality of life and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity level among children with CHD compared to children without CHD and to examine whether the association between these variables is modified by CHD or gender.

This cross-sectional analysis draws from a larger longitudinal study and included participants aged 5-10 years with or without any CHD and living in British Columbia, Canada. Parents/guardians completed the parent-proxy PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales, providing a PedsQL Total Score out of 100. Children wore an Ametris GT3X accelerometer for 7 consecutive days to measure moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (min/day). Generalised linear regression models were used for group and gender comparisons. An adjusted linear regression model was used to examine the association between physical activity and quality of life.

166 children (41% girls; n = 78 CHD, n = 88 non-CHD) were included in the analysis. Children with CHD had poorer PedsQL Total Scores (p = 0.002) and accumulated less moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than the non-CHD group (p = 0.008). Among children with CHD, girls accumulated less moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than boys (p < 0.001) and had poorer PedsQL Total Scores than boys (p = 0.035). The association between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (min/day) and PedsQL Total Score was significantly modified by CHD (p = 0.012), with a positive association found for children with CHD (β = 0.17 [95% confidence interval: 0.04, 0.29], p = 0.011), which was not modified by gender (p = 0.241).

These findings highlight the need to support the physical and psychosocial health of children with CHD, particularly girls with CHD.