Developmental coordination disorder and level of physical activity in children: systematic literature review

Introduction: Children with DCD may have difficulty in performing leisure activities, sports, in addition to problems in social interactions. Objective: To investigate the relationship between DCD and physical activity, as well as evaluate the research quality in the area. Method: It was conducted a search on four databases (PubMed, Bireme, Web of Science and Scopus), with the descriptors, in Portuguese and English languages: "motor activity" ("atividade motora"), "disorder of motor skills" ("transtorno das habilidades motoras"), "developmental coordination disorder" ("transtorno do desenvolvimento da coordenacao"), "physical activity" ("atividade fisica") and "children" ("criancas"). Results: The analysis processes included the reading of titles, abstracts and full texts. The initial electronic search found 3303 manuscripts, of which 22 met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Regarding the level of physical activity in children with DCD only eleven studies approached the theme, while others used it as a mediating variable. Conclusion: Children with DCD showed a lower level of physical activity compared to their pairs, which makes the disorder, during the childhood, a risk factor for physical inactivity in adolescence