Nutrition Interventions for Children with Special Health Care Needs

Section 1 - Determination of Nutrition Status
The Importance of Physical Activity in Health
Promotion
The role of physical activity in the prevention of disease and health promotion for
all children and adults has been advocated by many organizations. In 2008, the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published their Physical Activity
Guidelines for Americans (5). The guidelines for all children and youth call for
moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activity for periods of time that
add up to 60 minutes or more each day. Children with disabilities are urged to meet
these guidelines when possible. Other organizations, such as the American College
of Sports Medicine (6) and the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability
(7) have promoted the health benefits of physical activity, and articulated the public
health concerns that inactivity presents. As CSHCN are at serious risk for additional
health consequences such as obesity and musculoskeletal impairments as a result of
a more sedentary lifestyle, increasing their levels of physical activity should be a lifelong
objective.
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, known more
commonly as ICF, is the framework developed by the World Health Organization
(WHO) for measuring health and disability at both individual and population
levels (8). The ICF is a classification of three domains of human functioning: body
structures and functions, activities, and participation. (See Fig. 1) Body functions
refers to the physiological function of body systems, while body structures refers to
anatomical body parts, such as organs and muscles. Activities refers to a person’s
performance of tasks such as getting dressed, walking, or running. Participation
refers to the nature and extent of a person’s involvement in daily life situations, such
as attending school, socializing,
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or playing sports (recreation).
A primary goal of health care
professionals is to assist children
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with special health care needs in
participating as fully as possible
in the life of their family and
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community. Since an individual’s
functioning and disability occurs
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in a context, the ICF also includes
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personal factors (e.g. personality,
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Figure 1: The International Classification of Function,
age, lifestyle) and environmental Disability and Health (ICF)--World Health Organization,
factors (e.g. physical, economic,
2001. For more information on ICF, visit: http://www.who.
int/classifications/icf/en/index.html
Nutrition Interventions for Children With Special Health Care Needs 39