Currently, there is no consensus regarding the benefits of physical activity in terms of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) among different age groups of children. The number of school students avoiding physical education is on the rise. Children of all ages spend more time on sedentary behavior, eat less nutritious food and spend less time sleeping. All of these concomitant aspects adversely affect the immune system. A coexisting problem of a growing society is a large number of URTIs which is the main reason for general practitioner intervention. The aim of this study is to determine whether there is a correlation between the frequency of respiratory tract infections and the level of physical exercise in a cohort of pre-school children. This will be a cross-sectional, short-term study conducted on a single study population. We aim to recruit four-, to seven-year-old children who will be receiving activity monitoring devices for 24 h a day for 40 days. Daily step count, mean intensity of physical exercise and sleep duration will be measured. Simultaneously, their parents will receive a series of 60 questionnaires, one questionnaire per day, for the daily assessment of upper respiratory infection (URI) symptoms. Our study conducted on a cohort of healthy pre-school children using uniform tools, aims to scientifically establish and quantify the relationship between physical activity and health outcomes over a specified period of time.

Background The Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey for Kids (WURSS-K) is a self-administered questionnaire developed to evaluate the severity of the common cold. It is a patient-oriented instrument that evaluates quality of life in an illness-specific manner to be used in children aged 10 years. The purpose of this study was to validate the Polish version of the Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey for Kids. Methods The validation process consisted of five stages: forward translation, backward translation, cognitive debriefing, a pilot study (Study A and Study B), and statistical analysis. The first study (Study A, n = 10, aged 5–13) was conducted in the Emergency Room and an Outpatient Clinic of the Pediatric University Hospital in Warsaw. The purpose of the study was to obtain data for testing the convergent validity of the questionnaire. The second study (Study B, n = 56), consisted of children aged four to six enrolled in three kindergartens in the Warsaw suburbs. The obtained data were subjected to detailed statistical analysis. Results The WURSS Kids Polish showed excellent reliability. The Cronbach’s alpha of the 13 items was 0.791 for the six symptom items and 0.854 for the seven functional items. The Jonckheere–Terpstra trend test was used to evaluate criterion validity. Compliance of the measurement performed independently by the examined person and the doctor on the first day was high (convergent validity). Each particular item was characterized by a different sensitivity to clinical change. The Guyatt’s Responsiveness index ranged from 0.083 to 0.464. Conclusion The internal consistency of the measurements and cross-cultural adaptation of the Polish version of WURSS Kids was satisfactory. The WURSS Kids Polish is a reliable, valid, and responsive disease-specific questionnaire for assessing symptoms and QOL in Polish patients in the pediatric population with the common cold. It may be used both in clinical practice and for research among Polish children with URTI.

Wstęp: W literaturze anglojęzycznej opisane zostało wiele narzędzi pozwalających na ocenę stanu neuromotorycznego noworodków i niemowląt. Celem niniejszej pracy jest przedstawienie w polskiej literaturze medycznej skali Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE) oraz przeprowadzenie systematycznego przeglądu piśmiennictwa dotyczącego stosowania jej u niemowląt w predykcji mózgowego porażenia dziecięcego (MPD). Metoda: Przeszukano medyczną bazę danych MEDLINE PubMed używając następujących zwrotów kluczowych: cerebral palsy w połączeniu z Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination, znajdujących się w tytule i/lub streszczeniu publikacji. Dodatkowym kryterium włączenia był język angielski publikacji. Wyniki: Zidentyfikowano łącznie 22 publikacje. Pierwsza analiza pozwoliła wykluczyć 7 badań niespełniających kryteriów włączenia do szczegółowej analizy. Bazując na wynikach analizowanych badań można stwierdzić, że wynik HINE poniżej 66 punktów uzyskany w 3, 6, 9 i/lub 12 miesiącu życia wskazuje na ryzyko wystąpienia MPD w późniejszym etapie życia dziecka. Wnioski: Skala HINE jest użytecznym narzędziem wykorzystywanym już w pierwszych miesiącach życia dziecka do oceny ryzyka wystąpienia zaburzeń neurorozwojowych, w tym MPD. Umożliwia wczesne wykrycie zespołu zaburzeń, co jest szczególnie istotne w zaplanowaniu dalszego odpowiedniego leczenia. Zaleca się połączenie badania neurologicznego HINE z badaniem metodą Prechtla oraz badaniami neuroobrazowymi w celu zwiększenia mocy predykcyjnej. Jednakże, ze względu na wysoką czułość obu narzędzi, w codziennej praktyce klinicyści mogą zdecydować się na użycie tylko jednego z nich (HINE lub ocena wg Prechtla). Mimo ogólnodostępnej i nieskomplikowanej formy badania, HINE nie znajduje jednak szerokiego zastosowania u klinicystów, co, bez wątpienia, powinno ulec zmianie.

BACKGROUND: There is no consensus on the benefits of physical activity (PA) regarding upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) among children. This study aimed to determine an association between the PA level and URTIs in preschoolers. METHODS: In 4-7-year-old participants, URTI symptoms were monitored using the Polish version of the Wisconsin Upper Respiratory System Survey for Kids. The daily number of steps, PA intensity, and sleep duration were measured with a Garminvivofit pedometer. The lag effect between the initial level of daily PA and the frequency of infections was evaluated. RESULTS: The average daily step count from healthy days was a significant determinant of the total number of days with the URTI symptoms, and it accounted for 44% (p < 0.001) of this variable variance. A low level of baseline PA (initial 14-day "run-in" observation period) was associated with an increased risk of URTI. In the non-sport group, the severity of the URTI symptoms depended on the number of daily steps. No significant correlation was found between sleep duration and the number of URTI days. CONCLUSION: Low levels of PA in preschoolers result in increased susceptibility to respiratory infections. Parents should encourage children to engage in PA to prevent URTIs.

There is an urgent need for the systematic monitoring of motor and cognitive neurodevelopment and the evaluation of motor skill development in infants and children with heart disease. Familiarizing students and early graduates with the developmental care needed by these patients may help in the system-wide implementation of early motor screening in this population. The purpose of this study was to investigate the agreement between a last-year physiotherapy student and an experienced pediatric physiotherapist when applying the Polish version of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) to a heterogenous group of children with congenital heart defects. Agreement between raters was verified based on the observation of 80 (38 females) patients with heart disease aged 1–18 months using a Bland–Altman plot with limits of agreement and an intraclass correlation coefficient. The bias between raters for the total score for four age groups (0–3 months, 4–7 months, 8–11 months and 12–18 months) was between −0.17 and 0.22 (range: −0.54–0.78), and the ICC was between 0.875 and 1.000. Thus, a reliable assessment of motor development or motor skills using the Polish version of the AIMS can be performed in pediatric patients with heart defects by clinically inexperienced last-year physiotherapy students who are familiarized with the AIMS manual.