How Swimming Affects Cardiovascular Function amongst Individuals with Down Syndrome vs Typically Developing Individuals

<p dir="ltr">Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) have an increased risk for congenital cardiovascular (CV) malformations. Additionally, individuals with DS have lower levels of cardiorespiratory fitness. While many studies have investigated aspects of the CV system in children with DS, results have been largely isolated to treadmill testing. As a result, this study used a swimming intervention to investigate the effects of exercise on CV change in typically developing (TD) and DS youth. This project aimed to evaluate cardiovascular function differences, such as heart rate range and maximum heart rate, before and after swimming in both TD and children with DS. We collected data over the course of two summers in partnership with the UA Recreation Center and collect HR data as individuals swam in the pool during a 30 minute swim lesson.</p><p dir="ltr">Results showed that swimming effectively increases the maximal HR, average HR, and percentage maximum HR for TD children and children with DS. Furthermore, group differences were observed for average, percentage maximum HR, and maximum HR only while swimming for DS and TD, but not baseline, between children with and DS, contrary to previous literature. This might reflect a population bias, as children with DS who engage in regular physical exercise, and therefore have improved CV systems, might be more likely to participant in a swim-based research study. Present of VSDs could also be in play.</p><p dir="ltr">The three images used under the Heart Rate Measurements section were taken from the Polar vendor website <a href="http://www.polar.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">www.polar.com</a>. We thank them for their equipment to allow us to collect valuable data on the differences of cardiovascular function between the two populations studied</p><p dir="ltr"><br></p><hr><p dir="ltr"><i>For inquiries regarding the contents of this dataset, please contact the Corresponding Author listed in the README.txt file. Administrative inquiries (e.g., removal requests, trouble downloading, etc.) can be directed to data-management@arizona.edu</i></p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>