BackgroundLittle evidence is available about how sports participation influences psychosocial health and quality of life in children and adolescents with a disability or chronic disease. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to assess the association of sports participation with psychosocial health and with quality of life, among children and adolescents with a disability.MethodsIn a cross-sectional study, 195 children and adolescents with physical disabilities or chronic diseases (11% cardiovascular, 5% pulmonary, 8% metabolic, 8% musculoskeletal/orthopaedic, 52% neuromuscular and 9% immunological diseases and 1% with cancer), aged 10–19 years, completed questionnaires to assess sports participation, health-related quality of life (DCGM-37), self-perceptions and global self-worth (SPPC or SPPA) and exercise self-efficacy.ResultsRegression analyses showed that those who reported to participate in sports at least twice a week had more beneficial scores on the various indicators compared to their peers who did not participate in sport or less than twice a week. Those participating in sports scored better on all scales of the DCGM-37 scale, on the scales for feelings of athletic competence and children but not adolescents participating in sports reported greater social acceptance. Finally, we found a strong association between sport participation and exercise self-efficacy.ConclusionsThis study provides the first indications that participating in sports is beneficial for psychosocial health among children and adolescents with a disability. However, more insight is needed in the direction of the relationships.

The SRiT is a reproducible and valid test for measuring cardiorespiratory fitness in youth with spastic CP who self-propel a manual wheelchair.

AIM To investigate the test-retest reproducibility of the Muscle Power Sprint Test (MPST), the 10 9 5-m sprint test, and the arm-cranking Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT) in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP). A secondary objective was to assess the construct validity of the MPST.METHOD Twenty-three participants with spastic CP (mean age 13y 3mo, range 7-18y, SD 3.6y; 18 males, five females, two classified as having spastic unilateral CP, 21 as having spastic bilateral CP) using a manual wheelchair for at least part of the day were recruited and tested in different rehabilitation settings in the Netherlands. Participants were classified as in Gross Motor Function Classification System Expanded and Revised (GMFCS-E&R) levels III and IV. INTERPRETATION The MPST, the 10 9 5-m sprint test, and the arm-cranking WAnT are reproducible tests for measuring anaerobic performance and agility in adolescents with spastic CP who self-propel a manual wheelchair. The MPST has been shown to be a valid test to measure anaerobic performance in this population.Anaerobic performance and agility are important physiological factors that play a critical role in the ability of a child or adolescent with cerebral palsy (CP) to participate in daily activities.1 This is especially true for children with CP who use a wheelchair for mobility, because most motor activities of daily living (ADL), including playing in the playground, moving around in the classroom, but also climbing a curb and ascending a ramp, are of short duration.2 These short bouts of activity rely primarily on the energy produced by the ATP-PCr (or alactic) component of the anaerobic system and produce a relatively high physical stress on the individual.Exercise testing over time can provide a quantitative assessment of the improvement or decline in the anaerobic performance of children and adolescents with CP and has the potential to be an important measurement tool in clinical practice as well as in research. For children with CP who are able to walk or run independently, running-based field tests, like the Muscle Power Sprint Test (MPST) and the 10 9 5-m sprint test, are currently used in clinical practice and are inexpensive measures that do not require special equipment or training. 3 The MPST has been developed with the specific goal of examining anaerobic performance, 3 while the 10 9 5-m sprint test is a marker of agility.3 These tests, however, have not yet been examined in children and adolescents with CP who use wheelchairs.Anaerobic performance in children with neuromuscular disorders such as CP is often assessed in the laboratory setting using the cycling Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT). 4 While much of the focus to date has revolved around lower-limb-based anaerobic performance in children with CP, the upper-body or arm-cranking WAnT has been used to predict functional anaerobic performance.5 Tirosh et al. 6 reported that the arm-cranking WAnT was both feasible and reliable in a group of children with CP. This study, conducted over two decades ago, ...