MEDICAL AREA   

Medicina dello Sport 2016 June;69(2):204-14

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Sport activity of children and adolescents with hemophilia

Iwona SZYMKUĆ-BUKOWSKA ¹, Andrzej KURYLAK ², Małgorzata CISOWSKA-ADAMIAK ¹, Magdalena MACKIEWICZ-MILEWSKA ¹, Wojciech HAGNER ¹

¹ Department of Rehabilitation, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland; ² Department of Pediatrics, Hematology and Oncology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland

BACKGROUND: At present, hemophilia treatment enables the patients to lead active lives and practice various sport disciplines. The aim of this study was to analyze the physical activity levels in children and adolescents with severe and moderate hemophilia A and B compared to their healthy peers.
METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 67 boys with established hemophilia and their 91 healthy peers. The studied group included 62 (92.54%) patients with hemophilia A and 5 (7.46%) individuals with hemophilia B. Sixty of the examined boys (89.55%) had severe hemophilia and seven (10.45%) had moderate hemophilia. Familial pattern of the disease was observed in 30 (44.78%) participants.
RESULTS: As many as 51 out of 67 children with hemophilia (76.12%) engaged in at least one sport discipline, while 16 (23.88%) subjects were not involved in any form of sport activity. Only two boys with hemophilia participated in physical education classes at school. The majority of hemophiliac boys engaged in swimming or cycling (n=32 each), the others participated in football (N.=9), table tennis (N.=7), basketball (N.=3), or running (N.=2).
CONCLUSIONS: Despite prophylactic infusions, the level of sport activity in boys with hemophilia is relatively low.