Abstract
ObjectiveTo investigate, using accelerometers, the levels of physical activity being undertaken by individuals with intellectual disabilities with and without Down's syndrome.MethodsOne hundred and fifty two individuals with intellectual disabilities aged 12–70 years from East and South-East England. Physical activity levels in counts per minute (counts/min), steps per day (steps/day), and minutes of sedentary, light, moderate, vigorous, and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) measured with a uni-axial accelerometer (Actigraph GT1M) for seven days.ResultsNo individuals with intellectual disabilities met current physical activity recommendations. Males were more active than females. There was a trend for physical activity to decline and sedentary behaviour to increase with age, and for those with more severe levels of intellectual disability to be more sedentary and less physically active, however any relationship was not significant when adjusted for confounding variables. Participants with Down's syndrome engaged in significantly less physical activity than those with intellectual disabilities without Down's syndrome and levels of activity declined significantly with age.ConclusionsIndividuals with intellectual disabilities, especially those with Down's syndrome may be at risk of developing diseases associated with physical inactivity. There is a need for well-designed, accessible, preventive health promotion strategies and interventions designed to raise the levels of physical activity for individuals with intellectual disabilities. We propose that there are physiological reasons why individuals with Down's syndrome have particularly low levels of physical activity that also decline markedly with age.
Highlights
When compared with the general population individuals with intellectual disabilities experience significantly higher rates of morbidity [1], mortality [2], and health inequalities than the general population [3,4]
Principles findings of the study Worryingly, no children or adults in the current study met current [8] or former [7] physical activity recommendations. This is lower than the 3.5% of children and 5% of adults in the general population meeting such recommendations with the exception that children and adults were engaged in slightly more moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day than data presented on the general population in the 2008 Health Survey for England [11]
MVPA was very sporadic with few participants managing sustained bouts which is consistent with previous research on individuals with intellectual disabilities [22]
Summary
When compared with the general population individuals with intellectual disabilities ( referred to as learning disabilities) experience significantly higher rates of morbidity [1], mortality [2], and health inequalities than the general population [3,4]. There have been a small number of studies using this methodology in individuals with intellectual disabilities on small sample sizes (,50), and mostly including relatively young participants with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities with few mobility difficulties, or purposively selected participants based on a particular diagnoses (e.g., Down’s syndrome, those with obesity) [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26] Given these limitations the aims of this study were to investigate, using accelerometers, the levels of physical activity undertaken by a large sample of individuals with intellectual disabilities, to estimate the percentage of participants meeting physical activity recommendations, and to study any association with age, gender, and level of intellectual disabilities. Due to indications from previous research that individuals with Down’s syndrome have low levels of physical fitness [5] and high levels obesity [6] we have compared those with Down’s syndrome and those with intellectual disability without Down’s syndrome
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