Abstract
Introduction Individuals with Down syndrome may have decreased respiratory muscle strength due to hypotonia, a common characteristic in this population. Objective To analyze the effects of a hippotherapy program on respiratory muscle strength in individuals with Down syndrome. Materials and methods The study included 41 subjects, 20 of which were in the hippotherapy practicing group (PG) and 21 of which were in the non-practicing group (NPG). Study subjects were of both sexes, aged 7-13 years, and all diagnosed with Down syndrome. A manovacuometer was used to measure respiratory muscle strength, following the protocol proposed by Black and Hyatt (23). Statistical analysis was performed by means of descriptive distribution. After verifying normality and homoscedasticity of the variables, the Mann-Whitney test was used to determine differences between the means of the two groups (PG and NPG), and the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient test was used to view possible relationships with age and time practicing hippotherapy. Significance was set at p < 0.05. Results and discussion Individuals who practiced hippotherapy showed improvements in both inspiratory and expiratory respiratory muscle strength, although no significant difference was demonstrated. Conclusion This study demonstrates that hippotherapy benefits respiratory muscle strength in individuals with Down syndrome, and that the youngest subjects had the best results.
Highlights
Individuals with Down syndrome may have decreased respiratory muscle strength due to hypotonia, a common characteristic in this population
The data analysis was performed with results from 39 individuals with Down syndrome, divided into two groups: the practicing group (PG) was composed of 20 individuals (11 boys and 9 girls), while the non-practicing group (NPG) was composed of 19 participants (12 boys and 7 girls)
The means show that for both variables, the values for the PG are higher than the NPG, indicating that the respiratory muscle strength of the PG is better than that of the NPG
Summary
Individuals with Down syndrome may have decreased respiratory muscle strength due to hypotonia, a common characteristic in this population. Objective: To analyze the effects of a hippotherapy program on respiratory muscle strength in individuals with Down syndrome. Results and discussion: Individuals who practiced hippotherapy showed improvements in both inspiratory and expiratory respiratory muscle strength, no significant difference was demonstrated. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that hippotherapy benefits respiratory muscle strength in individuals with Down syndrome, and that the youngest subjects had the best results. According to the non-profit organization Movimento Down [Down Movement] [3], there is no specific statistic on the number of Brazilians with Down syndrome; based on the ratio of 1 per every 700 births, it is estimated that about 270 thousand people have this syndrome in Brazil. Comparing the data available from the middle of last century and today, the increase in life expectancy of this population is evident [5]
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