Physical literacy in pediatric congenital heart disease: a comparison with typically developing peers. A CHAMPS* cohort study.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a common birth anomaly. Long-term health risks associated with CHD can be mitigated through physical activity. One avenue to improve physical activity engagement is through the development of physical literacy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical literacy of children with CHD compared to a reference sample. Forty-nine children and adolescents with CHD (18 females) had their physical literacy measured using the PLAY tools. Their physical literacy was then compared to a previously collected reference sample of 733 (366 females) peers from 8 to 14 years of age. Reference curves were developed for the reference sample using the lamda, mu, sigma (LMS) method in LMSchartmaker Light to construct LMS tables and centile plots. Z-scores were then calculated to compare children with CHD to the age and sex appropriate reference sample 50th centile. When separated by sex, we found no differences in physical literacy (male z-score: -1.31 and female z-score: -0.63) between groups. We did find small age-specific differences in physical literacy between children with CHD and the reference sample. However, this was not found across most ages. Overall, our cross-sectional study found no comprehensive impairments in the physical literacy of children with CHD. However smaller age-specific deficits may exist. In the future, longitudinal data could provide more insight into any potential individual variation in the development of physical literacy for children with CHD.