Children With Congenital Heart Disease and the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines: A Scoping Review

Factors such as physical activity (PA), sedentary time, screen time, and sleep affect the holistic health of children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Despite this, their proximity to reaching the Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines is unknown. This review sought to synthesize evidence for PA, sedentary time, screen time, and sleep behaviour of children with CHD and compare them with the Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines. Six online databases were searched for research published from January 2010 to May 2024. Eligible articles included research involving children aged 4-20 years with any type of CHD lesion as well as a measure of one of PA, sedentary time, screen time, or sleep, reported in a unit of time. The search resulted in 9199 articles, and after removing ineligible articles, 30 were identified for this review. Of the included articles, 30 measured moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), 8 measured light PA, 14 measured sedentary time, 1 measured screen time, and 3 measured sleep time. Forty percent of studies reported that children with CHD met the MVPA guidelines. Within these, a subset of studies (n = 20) examined the percentage of the sample that reached the guideline and found that an average of 43% of children with CHD attained the MVPA guideline. No conclusions could be made for light PA or sedentary time because there is no clear quantification or numerical recommendation in the Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines. In addition, future research should include evaluations of the screen and sleep time of children with CHD due to very limited research in the area.