Comparison of Minimum Muscular Fitness of Congenital Hearing Loss and Normal Children using Kraus-Weber Test: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Muscular Fitness (MF) is a potent indicator and reliable marker of children’s and adolescents’ general health and well-being. Further, MF is a significant predictor of biopsychosocial well-being among children. Aim: To compare Hearing Impaired (HI) and normal hearing childrens’ minimum MF utilising the Kraus-Weber (K-W) test. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at Holy Cross School for the Hearing Impaired and Sacred Heart High School at Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. The duration of the study was from July 10, 2018 to 20 December, 2018. A total of 167 children of both genders aged 12 to 16 years, from a boarding school in southern India with congenital hearing loss (n=82) and normal hearing (n=85) children were included in this study. The demographic information of the participants, anthropometric measures, and six subtests of the K-W tests for minimum MF were evaluated. JASP (Jeffreys’s Amazing Statistics Program) version 0.16.1 was used for all statistical analyses. Descriptive statistics and Chi-squared test compared K-W test item success and failure rates. MannWhitney test evaluated physical differences. The level of significance was fixed 0.05. Results: The current research found that children with HI had a significantly lower minimum level of MF than children with normal hearing on K-W Test-3 (Abdominal minus psoas), K-W Test-5 (Lower back muscles), and K-W Test-6 (Back and Hamstrings) (p-value<0.001). Conclusion: The outcomes of this study revealed that HI children had lower minimal MF as measured by the K-W test than normal-hearing children. It highlighted the need for enhanced physical activity as well as education about the importance of maintaining minimum physical fitness.