The benefits of sports in chronic diseases: a research project with the Bambino Gesù Hospital

TheUniversity of Rome “Foro Italico” and theBambino Gesù Children’s Hospital have launched a research project to study the benefits of sports activity in children and young people with chronic diseases.

The initiative, funded by the nonprofit “La Stella di Lorenzo,” is part of a collaboration agreement between the two institutions, in keeping with the values promoted by the National Sports Day, which will be celebrated on Sunday, June 2, 2024.

The subject of the research is chronic noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular, dysmetabolic-endocrinological, oncological, renal and chronic respiratory diseases. These diseases, linked to risk factors such as sedentariness, poor diet, obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse and pollution, have become the leading cause of death, surpassing infectious diseases.

Sedentary lifestyle, in particular, is a significant risk factor for the development and exacerbation of chronic noncommunicable diseases, especially in pediatric age.

The project “The Benefits of Sport in Chronic Diseases,” carried out in collaboration between the University of Rome “Foro Italico” and the Bambino Gesù Sports Medicine, aims to evaluate the effects of Preventive and Adapted Motor Activity (PAAM) programs on about 60 patients aged 8 to 18 years, with biweekly training sessions for at least 4 months. Participants will be evaluated on cardiorespiratory and functional parameters before and after the program.

“We are confident that in the future we will be able to go as far as prescribing Adapted Preventive Motor Activity in the long-term treatment of patients with chronic diseases, as if it were a drug,” says Fabrizio Drago, head of Cardiology and Arrhythmology at Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital and director of the project, and continues, “proper physical activity, adapted to the type of patient and his or her chronic disease, in fact, will not only help prevent or delay many of these pathologies, but will constitute a real form of therapy at the time that these pathologies have occurred.”

Research on Preventive and Adapted Motor Activity is part of a broader agreement between the Bambino Gesù Hospital and theUniversity of Rome “Foro Italico.” Our Athenaeum, founded on education and research in the field of motor activities, fits perfectly with this project based on the combination of health and sport, aiming to promote research, training and awareness activities with particular reference to children and young people suffering from chronic diseases.

For Dean Attilio Parisi , “Adapted physical activity plays a fundamental role at all levels of prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary). Targeting motor programs to the pediatric population affected by diseases will not only allow to improve their quality of life, but also to counter many of the comorbidities related to the sedentary lifestyle that often characterizes these young patients. The collaboration with the Bambino Gesù represents an important research and third mission opportunity for the University through which the University makes its expertise available to the territory.”

Bambino Gesù Hospital President Tiziano Onesti said he is happy with this agreement “which allows us to combine prevention and treatment, training and scientific research. The collaboration with the University of Rome “Foro Italico” underlines the importance of the link between sports and health, both to prevent and to improve the quality of life of everyone, especially children and young people with chronic diseases,” he commented.

The research is funded by the nonprofit “La Stella di Lorenzo,” an association dedicated to the memory of young Lorenzo Fabbri, who passed away in 2012 due to an illness and has since been involved in initiatives to promote heart health and prevention through research and screening.