Abstract
Little is known about the patterns of sedentary time (ST) and physical activity (PA) levels throughout the week among adults and older adults with Intellectual Disability (ID). We analyzed ST and PA patterns of adults and older adults with ID. Forty-two adults and 42 older adults with mild to severe ID participated in this study. Height and weight were obtained to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI). Body fat and fat-free mass percentages were also obtained. Patterns of PA levels and ST were assessed with GT3X Actigraph accelerometers. Adults performed higher amounts of total PA and moderate to vigorous PA than older adults during the week, on weekdays and in center time (all p > 0.05). No differences between males and females were found for either PA levels or ST. Only 10.7% of the participants met the global recommendations on PA for health. The participants of the current study showed low PA levels and a high prevalence of ST. Interestingly, when comparing age and/or sex groups, no differences were observed for ST. Our findings provide novel and valuable information to be considered in future interventions aiming to increase PA levels and reduce ST.
Highlights
The lack of physical activity (PA) and the increase of sedentary behaviours among the general population have shown a direct relation with negative health outcomes [1,2]
When the age group was divided by sex, it was found that the main differences in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) during WD and center time were due to the fact that adult males with intellectual disability (ID) perform more MVPA than older adults with ID
When comparing with other studies, we found that the proportion of adults with ID that accumulated the recommended quantity of steps per day in our study was lower than the values reported by other authors, who found that 14% to 45% of participants achieved the recommendation [29,30,54], but higher than the proportions reported by Dixon-Ibarra et al [33]
Summary
The lack of physical activity (PA) and the increase of sedentary behaviours among the general population have shown a direct relation with negative health outcomes [1,2]. For this reason many health guidelines published by several health authorities recommend regular PA to prevent health impairments [3,4]. As previous studies have already shown over the few last years, numerous instruments have been developed to objectively measure PA levels. Accelerometers are used to objectively monitor PA, and lately, their use in different populations has increased [6,7]. There are studies that have effectively used these motion sensors with participants with intellectual disability (ID) to assess sedentary time (ST), PA levels and energy expenditure [8,9,10,11]
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