Physical Activity of Children with Physical Disabilities: Associations with Environmental and Behavioral Variables at Home and School.

Cindy Sit,Elean Leung,Thomas L Mckenzie,Ester Cerin,Stephen Wong,Raymond Sum,Ru Li

doi:10.3390/ijerph16081394

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the physical activity (PA) of children with physical disabilities (PD) and its associated environmental and behavioral factors at home and at school. One hundred and forty-seven Hong Kong children (mean age = 13.5 ± 2.5 years) with PD from three special schools participated. We used BEACHES (Behaviors of Eating and Activity for Children’s Health: Evaluation System) to assess their PA and associated variables at home (before dinner) and during four school settings (before classes, recess, lunch breaks, after classes) on four school days. Overall, the children were typically inactive and spent little time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), range = 6.3% to 17.0% across settings. At home, children were more active when fathers were present (p < 0.001). At school, prompts to be active contributed to their MVPA% before classes (p < 0.01) and during recess and lunch breaks (both p < 0.001). The presence of a child’s mother was positively associated with MVPA% before classes (p < 0.001) and the presence of other children was associated with MVPA% during recess and lunch breaks (both p < 0.05). With children with PD accruing small amounts of MVPA in both home and school settings, multifaceted interventions reflecting both contextual and personal factors should be considered in order to increase the health-enhancing PA of this population.

Highlights

With the high prevalence of sedentary living and its association with obesity and other related health problems, the promotion of physical activity (PA) has become a global public health priority [1].As a result, there has been an increasing number of studies on PA and associated environmental conditions, most of which have focused on typically developing children and adults without disabling conditions
A one-unit increase in motivation prompts/reinforcers to be active from others was associated with a 0.40% increase in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)% before classes
= (0.17, 0.64), p = 0.007), a 0.46% increase during recess (b = 0.46, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = (0.33, 0.59), p < 0.001), and a 0.54% increase during lunch breaks (b = 0.54, 95% CI = (0.43, 0.65), p < 0.001)

Summary

Introduction

With the high prevalence of sedentary living and its association with obesity and other related health problems, the promotion of physical activity (PA) has become a global public health priority [1]. There has been an increasing number of studies on PA and associated environmental conditions, most of which have focused on typically developing children and adults without disabling conditions. Nearly 15% of the world’s population (equivalent to one billion people) live with a disability, with about 95 million of them being children [2]. Kong (4.5% of the population) have a physical disability (PD) [3], but rarely is their PA studied [4]. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 1394; doi:10.3390/ijerph16081394 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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