Grant: Operating Grant: SickKids-CIHR-IHDCYH New Investigator Grants

Physical activity (PA) plays an important role in optimising health, quality of life and long-term prognosis in children living with chronic conditions such as type 1 diabetes (T1D) and congenital heart disease (CHD). Yet these children are typically less active than their peers, in large part due to dogmatic restrictions over safety concerns. The potential for PA education, monitoring and counselling in the clinical setting is not routinely being realised and published research regarding intensive PA interventions tend to yield underwhelming results. Known determinants of PA in healthy children (e.g., age, gender, sociocultural and environmental factors) are often overlooked in children with chronic diseases and instead, PA research in these groups tends to adopt the narrow focus on the medical condition and associated sequalae as the sole determinants of PA. Our ultimate goal is to support children with T1D and CHD to be physically active. As a first step, this innovative project will generate much-needed foundational knowledge regarding PA behaviours and determinants. We will use a mixed-methods approach, whereby we will use accelerometers to chart objectively-measured PA over time in children with T1D, CHD and their peers. An embedded qualitative study uses life story interviews with parents/guardians, using a timeline mapping approach as a story elicitation tool. These are novel methods which will provide us with invaluable and comprehensive insight regarding the complexities of navigating PA participation during childhood in individuals growing up with a chronic disease.