Physical Activity, Exercise, and Sports in Individuals with Skeletal Dysplasia: What Is Known about Their Benefits?

Abstract

There is a lack of knowledge about the practice of physical activity, exercise, and sports in people with skeletal dysplasia (SD). This study aimed to characterize the physical fitness of people with SD; investigate the benefits of physical activity, exercise, or sports programs for people with SD; identify the adapted physical activities that can be prescribed to individuals with SD; and identify the most common and effective structural characteristics and guidelines for the evaluation of individuals with SD and corresponding activity prescriptions. Electronic searches were carried out in the PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, Psycinfo, and Web of Science databases in October 2021 and March 2022 and included papers published until 3 March 2022. The search strategy terms used were “dwarfism”, “dwarf”, “skeletal dysplasia”, “achondroplasia”, “pseudoachondroplasia”, “hypochondroplasia”, “campomelic dysplasia”, “hair cartilage hypoplasia”, “x-linked hypophosphatemia”, “metaphyseal chondrodysplasia schmid type”, “multiple epiphyseal dysplasia”, “three M syndrome”, “3-M syndrome”, “hypophosphatasia”, “fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive”, “type II collagen disorders”, “type II collagenopathies”, “type II collagenopathy”, “physical activity”, “exercise”, “sport”, “training”, and “physical fitness”, with the Boolean operators “AND” or “OR”. After reading the full texts of the studies, and according to previously defined eligibility criteria, fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria; however, there was not a single intervention study with physical exercise. Several cross-sectional, review, or qualitative studies presented a set of essential aspects that future intervention studies can consider when evaluating, prescribing, and implementing physical exercise programs, as they allowed the physical characterization of the SD population. This study demonstrated an apparent scarcity in the literature of experimental studies with physical exercise implementation in the SD population.

Unveiling the Chaos in Postural Control in Adults with Achondroplasia

“…Several characteristics emerged in the overall sample for this study on sway patterns. Having achondroplasia imposes challenges in the sensorimotor integration underlying balance regulation [ 33 , 43 ]. While the N group also incurred postural constraints from disproportionate limbs, the intervention effect inflicted further control difficulties, clearly highlighted by the LL group.…”

“…Previous studies in the general adult population have highlighted the existence of linear relations between physical activity, handgrip strength, body composition, and multimorbidity [ 29 ]. It has been reported that PwACH present poor physical fitness, low participation in physical activities and reduced energy expenditure compared with the general population [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. While muscle size is a predetermining factor of muscle strength, PwACH present shorter stature, smaller muscle size and lower maximal voluntary contraction strength than average-height people [ 34 ].…”

relationship between body mass index (BMI) & physical activity with cyphhosis in physiotherapy students at the faculty of medicine, Udayana University

“…In general, kyphosis posture can also interfere with physical appearance due to poor posture (Fauzie et al, 2023). Based on Juliana's research, 2015, a study of changes in posture in adolescence, the prevalence of kyphosis in adolescents was 79.7% (n = 47), of which 47.5% (n = 28) showed changes on the frontal side and 61% (n = 36) there is a change on the sagittal side (Jacinto et al, 2022). Kyphosis is a spinal deformity that occurs in adolescents.…”