David White, PhD, ACSM-CEP

Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine

Full Biography

David White, PhD, Heart Center, and Bill Black, PhD, Developmental and Behavioral Health and University of Kansas Medical Center, were recently awarded a 1-year, $33,000 CCHLN Pilot Grant from the Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition.

Their project, “Adaptation and validation of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia for adolescents with cardiac arrhythmia disorders,” hopes to better understand physical activity behaviors in youth with cardiac arrhythmia disorders (CArD) using the framework from physical activity fear-avoidance.

As Dr. White explains, there have been no studies of fear related to physical activity or kinesiophobia (KP) in adolescents with CArD. As such, there are no validated or reliable tools to measure KP in adolescents with CArD. This pilot study will develop and determine the validity and reliability of a modified version of the Tampa Scale of KP-Heart for adolescents with CArD (TSK-Heart-A).

A bit of background on physical activity, KP and TSK-Heart-A:

The fear-avoidance model, used to describe fear of movement in patients with chronic pain, postulates that disease related symptoms can be catastrophized, cascading into hyperarousal of symptoms, fear that activities may exacerbate symptoms, and thus avoidance of threatening stimuli. Kinesiophobia is a manifestation of the fear-avoidance model where patients have an excessive, irrational, and debilitating fear of physical activity resulting from a feeling of vulnerability related to their condition. The Tampa Scale for KP (TSK) is a 17-item questionnaire that asks participants to rate their agreement (1-4 scale) with statements focused on feelings of fear, safety, and risk related to physical activity, and is the most common instrument used to measure KP.

“Successful completion of this pilot study could unlock new and unexplored lines of research by providing investigators with an instrument to quantify KP in youth with cardiac disease. Additionally, this study would provide the requisite preliminary data to seek external funding to explore the prevalence of KP in pediatric CArD and further evaluate the underlying mechanisms related to the development and maintenance of KP in youth with CArD,” said Dr. White. “It meets a larger mission to improve overall health for patients with cardiovascular disease.”

Co-investigators include Jami Gross-Toalson, PhD, Emily Cramer, PhD, Kelli Teson, PhD, Jessica Watson, MS, Mollie Walton, MD, Laura Martis CPNP-AC, and Lindsey Malloy-Walton, DO, MPH, all with Children’s Mercy.