Prospective Associations of Physical Activity and Health-Related Physical Fitness in Adolescents with Down Syndrome: The UP&DOWN Longitudinal Study.

Borja Suarez-Villadat,Oscar Veiga,Ariel Villagra,Veronica Cabanas-Sanchez,Rocio Izquierdo-Gomez

doi:10.3390/ijerph18115521

Abstract

(1) Background: Numerous studies have focused on examining the association between PA levels and health-related physical fitness components in children or adolescents without disabilities. However, research on the association between PA and health-related physical fitness in adolescents with DS (Down syndrome) is limited, and most of the previous studies have been developed with a cross-sectional perspective. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the prospective association of accelerometer-based PA at baseline with health-related physical fitness at a 2-year follow-up in a relatively large sample of adolescents with DS from the UP&DOWN study. (2) Methods: A total of 92 adolescents with DS (58 males) between 11 and 20 years old with full data were eligible from an initial sample of 110 participants. Fitness was assessed by the ALPHA health-related fitness test battery for youth, and physical activity was assessed by Actigraph accelerometers. (3) Results: The high tertile of total PA was related to decreased motor (Beta [95% CI] = −1.46 [−2.88; −0.05]) and cardiorespiratory fitness (Beta [95% CI] = −2.22 [−4.42; 0.02]) in adolescents with DS. (4) Conclusions: In adolescents with DS, (i) PA level was not prospectively associated with muscular fitness and (ii) high levels of total PA at the baseline were inversely associated with motor and cardiorespiratory fitness at the 2-year follow-up. For comparative purposes, these relationships were also examined in a subsample of adolescents without DS.

Highlights

Physical activity (PA) could be defined as any body movement produced by the action of skeletal muscles that is capable of causing an increase in energy expenditure [1]
These relationships were examined in a subsample of adolescents without Down syndrome (DS)
The group with DS shows an increase in Body Mass Index (BMI) and a better performance of cardiorespiratory fitness levels at the 2-year followup, while the group without DS shows an increase in BMI and a better performance of motor fitness and cardiorespiratory fitness variable

Summary

Introduction

Physical activity (PA) could be defined as any body movement produced by the action of skeletal muscles that is capable of causing an increase in energy expenditure [1]. DS is a genetic condition associated with mild or moderate intellectual disability It is caused by the presence of additional genetic material known as 21 trisomy, with an estimated incidence of 1 in 1000 live births [4]. People with DS have motor and developmental delays, exhibiting common phenotypic characteristics, such as diminished cardiac responses, muscle hypotonia, blunted arterial stiffness responses, poor postural control, autonomic dysfunction, chronotropic incompetence, and poor balance. This might be the cause of low levels of PA and health-related physical fitness [5,6]

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