Evaluating growth curves in physically active or not people with down syndrome: A literature review

Growth curves are useful for clinicians in order to monitor children health and growth. They become even more important in disease involving growth disturbances, such as for individuals with Down Syndrome (DS). Their role in DS people practicing physical activity or sport is fundamental for monitoring health benefits and their evolution during time. Several countries developed their own curves, by using different control population, different inclusion/exclusion criteria, different numbers and analysis, thus achieving quite different results. In this context, we conducted a literature search of original articles on growth curves published between 2010 and 2019. We found 11 articles from almost all continents, investigating height, weight, head circumference and BMI in people with DS. For each work we analysed nation, number of participants and observations, considered age range, type of study, considered population, outcomes, control and main results. In the complex, the included studies reported for general DS population shorter heights and head circumferences and higher BMI and weight/height ratio in both male and female with DS when compared to their peers. Although it is known that most of these differences in reference to general population may be due to lower physical activity, none of the selected studies dealt with this aspect. Indeed, no study focused on physically active people with DS, that could result having different growth pattern than inactive or general population with DS. In conclusion, further investigation is needed in order to achieve the complete, updated, methodologically strong, nation and subgroup-specific growth curves, so that they could become a reliable tool for clinical practice.