Effect of a 6-Month Chronic Disease Management Program on the Physical Literacy of Children With Congenital Heart Disease: A CHAMPS Cohort Study

<h2>Abstract</h2><h3>Background</h3> Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) have sequela related to their heart defect that can impact their lifelong health. Physical literacy development is one way to improve their health since it provides them the competence and confidence to engage in physical activity; however, it may be impaired in children with CHD. Therefore, we sought to determine the effect of a 6-month chronic disease management program on physical literacy development of children with CHD. <h3>Methods</h3> Thirteen children with CHD participated in the program and were age and sex matched to twelve typically developing peers (TDP) who served as the control population. All participants had their motor competence (PLAYfun), confidence (PLAYself), and parental perception of child's physical literacy (PLAYparent) measured pre- and post-program. A 2x2 between-within factorial MANCOVA measured the effectiveness of the program while controlling for age, sex, height, weight, maturity, and self-reported physical activity. <h3>Results</h3> The 6-month program significantly improved children with CHD's skip, gallop, and locomotor motor competence (<i>p</i><0.05), while the TDP group displayed no change (<i>p></i>0.05). At baseline children with CHD had lower locomotor, object control, and total motor competence compared to TDP (<i>p</i><0.05). At follow-up children with CHD had lower balance and total motor competence compared to TDP (<i>p</i><0.05). No change was found in parental perception of physical literacy or the children's confidence for either group (<i>p></i>0.05). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Children with CHD had impaired motor competence at baseline and while the program did result in an improvement in the locomotor domain it was not able to mitigate all differences in physical literacy.