Physical Activity and Fatigue in Children with Intestinal Failure on Parenteral Nutrition.

2021 
OBJECTIVES With improved survival of children with intestinal failure (IF), it is important to examine the impact on long-term physical function, physical activity (PA), and fatigue and identify clinical factors that may be predictive of impairment. METHODS Cross-sectional study in children with IF on parenteral nutrition (PN) compared to healthy age and sex matched controls (HC's). Assessments included: Paediatric Quality of Life (PedsQLTM) Physical Function subscale, PedsQLTM Multi-Dimensional Fatigue Scale, and PA Perceived Benefits and Barriers scale. PA was measured using an accelerometer. Medical data was collected by chart abstraction. RESULTS Participants included 21 children with IF (14 males), median age 8.33 (IQR 6.96, 11.04) years and 33 HC's (20 males), 8.25 (6.67, 10.79) years. In those with IF, 13 (62%) were born prematurely with a median of 15 (7.5, 24.5) in-patient hospitalizations. There was a significant difference (p = 0.033) in mean steps/day in children with IF (9709 +/-3975) compared to HC's (13104 +/-5416), and a correlation between moderate to vigorous PA and gestational age (r = 0.642, p = 0.010). Child and parent proxy scores indicate poorer physical function and greater fatigue in the IF group, along with a correlation between greater fatigue (r = -0.538, p = 0.012), poorer physical function (r = -.0650, p = .0001) in children with more hospitalizations.Barriers to PA include "I am tired" and "I am worried about my line." CONCLUSIONS Children with IF present with lower levels of PA and physical function and greater fatigue compared to their peers. Ongoing development of medical and rehabilitation intervention strategies is vital to optimize outcomes.
    • Correction
    • Source
    • Cite
    • Save
    • Machine Reading By IdeaReader
    43
    References
    1
    Citations
    NaN
    KQI
    []