Prevalence of Developmental Coordination Disorder in a sample of Brazilian children

• Main Authors: Thais Silva Beltrame, Renata Capistrano, Juliano Maestri Alexandre, Tailine Lisboa, Rubian Diego Andrade, Érico Pereira Gomes Felden
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de São Carlos 2017-03-01
• Series: Cadernos de Terapia Ocupacional
• Subjects: Motor Skills; Motor Skills Disorders; Children.
• Online Access: http://www.cadernosdeterapiaocupacional.ufscar.br/index.php/cadernos/article/view/1478/821

Introduction: Due the consequences that the Developmental Coordination Disorder - DCD can bring to the development of children in motor, affective and social aspects, a research with representative samples in Brazil becomes needed. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of DCD in students aged 7 to 10 years old. The sample consisted of 787 children from the city of Florianópolis/SC. Method: The motor performance was evaluated by the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Second Edition - MABC-2 which ranks the motor performance in three: difficulty, risk and standard motor performance. For analysis we used descriptive statistics (average, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, and frequency) and inferential statistics (Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney, Krusskal-Wallis with post-hoc Dunn). The statistical significance was set on p<0.05. Results: The prevalence of motor difficulty and risk for motor difficulty was 7.1% and 11.3% respectively and with no motor difficulty was 81.6%. By associating sex with motor classifications it was observed that boys had more motor difficulty (X2 = 6.38; p = 0.04). Girls showed more difficulty with the throwing and receiving skills; and the boys with manual dexterity skills. Children aged 7 and 8 years had higher prevalence of DCD. Conclusion: The prevalence of the disorder, as well as the differences between the sexes was considered similar to evidences presented in international research.