Objective: To synthesize evidence about physical fitness levels in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) compared with typically developing (TD) children.
Methods: We searched four databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycINFO) for cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort studies comparing physical fitness between children with and without DCD. We assessed the methodological quality of the studies with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). We calculated Cohen's d effect sizes to provide clinical evidence of group differences in aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, muscle strength, body composition and flexibility.
Results: We included 32 studies for qualitative synthesis after applying eligibility criteria. All selected studies ranged from moderate to high research quality. Effect sizes in favor of typically developing children over children with DCD were large for aerobic capacity (d = 1.15), anaerobic capacity (d = 0.90), and muscle strength (d = 0.79), and small for body composition (d = 0.43) and flexibility (d = 0.21) outcomes.
Conclusion: Children with DCD presented significantly lower physical fitness than their typically developing peers, particularly in aerobic and anaerobic capacity and in muscle strength.
Keywords: Aerobic capacity; anaerobic capacity; motor skills disorders; muscle strength; physical fitness.