Health-related quality of life in children with developmental coordination disorder: a systematic review.

The aims of this study were (1) to synthesize evidence of the general health-related quality of life in children with DCD compared to their typically developing peers, and (2) to verify which domains of HRQOL are more compromised in children with DCD. A systematic search was carried out to identify cross-sectional studies that evaluated self-perception and/or the parent's perception of the HRQOL in children with and without DCD as an outcome. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed, and the effect size calculated. Initial searches in the databases identified 1092 articles. Of these, six were included. Most of the articles (5/6) included noted that children with DCD show a significantly lower HRQOL than their typically developing peers. Regarding the most compromised HRQOL domains, the results are heterogeneous. Most studies (3/6) had moderate methodological quality, and two studies were classified as high methodological quality. Effect sizes ranged from low to high.

Manual exploratory behaviors in six-month-old infants at environmental and biological risk.

BACKGROUND: Exploratory behaviors are essential and may improve different skill development. Different risk factors may negatively impact neuromotor development, such as biological risk and environmental risk. OBJECTIVE: Assess and discriminate exploratory behaviors of infants at environmental or biological risk and infants at non-risk. METHODS: Sixty-four six-month-old infants were divided into three independent groups: Group 1 (G1), 28 healthy full-term infants; Group 2 (G2), 21 full-term infants of low socioeconomic status (SES); Group 3 (G3), 15 very preterm infants. Nine exploratory behaviors were assessed: fingering, mouthing, waving, tapping, banging, transferring, rotating, alternating, and squeezing. RESULTS: For the malleable object, fingering (p = 0.005) and transferring (p = 0.046) behaviors were different between G2 and G3 whereas waving behavior (p = 0.041) differed between G1 and G3 and transferring (p = 0.003) between G1 and G2. For the rigid object, waving was different between G1 and G3 (p = 0.018) whereas transferring behavior differed between G2 and G3 (p = 0.019). Total number of behaviors was significantly different between G1 and G2 for malleable (p = 0.019) and rigid objects (p = 0.009). Intragroup analysis revealed differences between malleable and rigid objects for transferring (p = 0.013), squeezing (p < 0.0001), fingering (p < 0.0001), and banging (p = 0.013) behaviors in infants from G1. Fingering and squeezing (p < 0.0001) were different between malleable and rigid objects in G2 (p = 0.009 and p < 0.0001) and G3 (p = 0.004 and p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Risk factors and object properties influence exploratory behaviors, mainly in low SES infants. Fingering and banging behaviors are favored by rigid objects, while squeezing is favored by malleable objects.

Habilidades funcionais e qualidade de vida em crianças com Leucemia Linfoblástica Aguda / Functional abilities and quality of life in children withacute lymphoblastic leukemia

Objetivo: Comparar as capacidades funcionais e a qualidade de vida entre crianças com leucemia linfoblástica aguda em tratamento com quimioterapia e/ou radioterapia e crianças sem o tratamento, de 4 a 7 anos de idade. Método: Participaram do estudo 50 crianças, sendo 25 em tratamento (grupo experimental) e 25 que já terminaram o tratamento (grupo controle), avaliados por meio do Inventário de Avaliação Pediátrica de Incapacidade (PEDI) e da Escala de Qualidade de Vida da Criança (AUQEI). Resultados: Não houve diferença entre os grupos nos escores brutos do PEDI e na pontuação do AUQEI. Os escores normativos do PEDI apresentaram-se predominantemente abaixo do esperado para a idade em ambos os grupos. A pontuação do AUQEI demonstrou uma qualidade de vida prejudicada no grupo experimental e no controle. Conclusão: Sugere-se que a leucemia linfoblástica aguda e seus tratamentos (quimio e radioterápicos) geram prejuízos funcionais e psicossociais, tanto no momento do tratamento oncológico como após sua conclusão e remissão da doença. É relevante que haja promoção de um acompanhamento longitudinal e multiprofissional da criança com câncer, a fim de minimizar os danos e reinseri-la na comunidade efetivamente.