Sedentary Behavior Levels And Patterns In Men And Women With Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Adults with Intellectual Disability (ID) experience health disparities that may be attributable to high levels of sedentary behavior. The levels and weekly patterns of sedentary behavior among U.S. adults with ID have received little attention. PURPOSE: To examine levels and patterns of sedentary behavior and how these differ between sexes and weekdays and weekend days in adults with ID. METHODS: The sample included 52 adults with ID (25 men; age 45 ± 14 years) who wore an accelerometer (wGT3X-BT; Actigraph) on the hip for 7 days. Using valid days, we determined total sedentary time, percent of wear time spent sedentary, number and duration of sedentary bouts, and breaks in sedentary time. We examined sedentary bouts with thresholds of ≥1, ≥10, ≥30, ≥60 and ≥90 min and breaks for bouts ≥10 min. We used t-tests and 2×2 (sex by day) ANOVA to evaluate the effects of sex and day of the week. RESULTS: Total sedentary time did not differ between men and women (533 ± 139 and 496 ± 140 min·day-1, respectively; p = 0.35; for both sexes combined, 514 ± 139 min·day-1). Men and women with ID accumulated sedentary time mostly in short bouts <10 min in duration. There were no significant differences between men and women, except for duration of sedentary bouts ≥1 min which was longer for men than women for weekdays (6.45 ± 2.58 and 5.18 ± 1.09 min, respectively; p = 0.027) and for all days of the week combined (6.71 ± 2.62 and 5.29 ± 1.11 min, respectively; p = 0.017). Most variables did not differ between week and weekend days, except for: duration of sedentary bouts ≥1 min was longer during weekend than weekdays in women (5.5 ± 1.8 and 5.18 ± 1.07 min, respectively; p = 0.048); duration of sedentary bouts ≥60 min was longer during week than weekend days in men (56 ± 42 and 47 ± 44 min, respectively; p = 0.037); number of sedentary bouts ≥1 min was greater during weekdays than weekend days in men (87 ± 21 and 83 ± 25 bouts·day-1, respectively; p = 0.045); and duration of breaks was greater during the weekdays than weekend days in men (138 ± 126 and 81 ± 67 min, respectively; p <0.001). CONCLUSION: U.S. adults with ID spend a large portion of the day in sedentary behavior primarily of short bouts. There are small differences between sexes and between days of the week, suggesting near-uniform sedentary behavior levels and patterns for men and women with ID throughout the week.