Sedentary And Physical Activity Patterns In Children With Intellectual Disabilities: Differences Between Levels Of Intellectual Disability

Abstract

PURPOSE: To analyze the potential severity difference of children with intellectual disabilities in sedentary patterns and physical activity (PA) levels. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was completed by 153 children with mild to severe ID (mild ID = 48, moderate ID =60, severe ID = 45) aged 8.0 to 14.0 years. Children wore an ActiGraph GT3+ accelerometer over a consecutive 7 days to assess minutes per day of sedentary time (ST), light physical activity (LPA) and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). A valid day was defined as recording at 8 hours of measured wear time between 7:00 am and 20:00 pm and non-wear time was defined as >60 min of consecutive zeros from Boddy’ s finding. The intensity cutoffs of the measured PA levels are as follows: LPA (<2,800 count per min (CPM)), MVPA (>4000 CPM) recommended for this population. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to compare the ST and PA levels between different level of ID. RESULTS: Controlling for participants gender, age and BMI. ID level was significantly associated with ST, LPA and MVPA among children with ID, Pillai’s λ = 0.53, F(6,290) = 18.379, η2 = 0.28, p < 0.01. Children with severe ID (711.06 ± 28.84 min/day) had significantly longer ST than those with moderate ID (699.86 ± 123.94 min/day) and those with mild ID (642.64 ± 26.77 min/day). Children with severe ID (60.18 ± 22.18 min/day) had significantly lower LPA than those with moderate ID (76.59 ± 25.82 min/day) and those with mild ID (108.05 ± 26.54 min/day). Children with severe ID (20.75 ± 6.98 min/day) had significantly lower MVPA than those with moderate ID (38.55 ± 17.14 min/day) and those with mild ID (43.95 ± 14.70 min/day). CONCLUSIONS: ST, LPA and MVPA differ significantly among children with different levels of ID, with severer ID level had longer ST and lower PA levels. These findings suggest that population specific interventions are critical to promote physical activity levels and improve health in children with different levels of ID.