VENTILATORY FUNCTION, POSTURE AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS

Carvalho R.M.¹, Costa C.¹, Botelho N.¹, Nunes K.²

¹Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Faculdade de Fisioterapia, Juiz de Fora, Brazil, ²Universidade Federral de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a disease that affects, among others, the respiratory system and can interfere with body posture and quality of life (QoL) of patients.

Purpose: To characterize posture and QoL of children and teenagers with CF and to compare with healthy peers, as well as to assess the association between clinical severity of the disease, posture alterations and QoL.

Methods: CF (CF group) and healthy (C group) children and teenagers were assessed through spirometry, posture analysis with the Software for Posture Assessment (SAPO®) and QoL by means of the PedsQL questionnaire. The CF group was also assessed by the Shwachman score. Data analysis was made through the statistic package SPSS version 15.0. A descriptive analysis was made, the normality of the data was checked by the Shapiro-Wilk test, the t-Student test and Wilcoxon test were used for comparisons, and the Pearson and Spearman tests to check correlations. The significance level was set as 5% (α≤0,05).

Results: 34 children were assessed, 18 in the CF group and 16 in the C group. Mean age (± standard deviation), in each group, was 11.15 (±3.54) and 11.11 (±3.49), respectively. Differences in FEV1 (p=0,002), FVE1/FVC (p=0,04) and FEF25-75% (p=0.05) were found between groups, and there was a tendency (p = 0.06) for CF group children with age equal or superior to 13 years to present lower values of FVE1/FVC than those with lower age. The FEV1 80% of the predict was associated with higher hips misalignment (p=0.007), and this postural aspect also showed association with lower punctuation in the physical aspect of the Shwachman score (r=0.56; p=0.03). Age showed inverse association with scores in the social (r=-0.34; p=0,05), scholar (r=-0.38; p=0.02) and total score (r=-0.41; p=0.02) domains of the PedsQL.

Conclusion(s): Children and teenagers with CF present lower values for lung function and this aspect seems not to interfere on QoL, which is lower during the teenage years. Posture, although very similar between CF and C groups, suffers, in the hips alignment aspect, influence from the airways obstruction degree and from the severity of the disease.

Implications: Understanding the implications of FC in posture and quality of life of children and teenagers is important for the definition of physiotherapy treatment directed to the patients.

Funding acknowledgements: No funding

Topic: Paediatrics

Ethics approval: This study was submitted to Plataforma Brasil and approved in the opinion 1.255.364 at UFJF University Hospital Ethics Committee.

All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.