Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents with Disabilities- a cross sectional study

Kirti Joshi , Chandrika Rao , Sundar Kumar , Mridula Madhukar

Physical activity, accelerometer, steps count, children, adolescents

Purpose: The emphasis on quantifying physical activity (PA) objectively in terms of step count with accelerometers or pedometers is established worldwide in normal as well as special populations. Limited studies have reported these data in Indian population and none have measured PA using objective measures in children with special needs. Thus, this study aims to describe PA in terms of steps count in children and adolescents with disabilities in our population. Participants: In this cross-sectional study, 40 children (mean age 11.66 years) with GMFCS levels I to III with physical and intellectual disability were recruited through convenient sampling. Uncooperative children or those with degenerative conditions or those who had undergone any surgeries which could limit locomotion were excluded. Method: The children were given ActivPAL (accelerometer) to be worn on the thigh for a period of 7 days. Data obtained from the ActivPAL was tallied with the parental record and valid data which included atleast 3 days of wear time consisting of 10 hours/day was included in the data analysis.29 valid data were considered for analysis Analysis: Wear time, valid days, step counts , percentage of recommended activity were summarized using descriptive statistics. The effect of gender, age and diagnostic category on step count were analyzed using nonparametric tests. Results: Based on an average wear time of 13 hours over 5 days, the Median value for step count was 5175 ( weekday -5248, weekend - 5369) which is about 50% of the recommended step count for the age group. We did not find any significant influence of age, gender or diagnostic category on PA levels. Conclusion: Physical activity levels of children and adolescents with disabilities are significantly less than recommended levels inspite of their ability to ambulate with minimal or no assistance. Implications: Therapy for children and adolescents with special needs should target enhancement of physical activity for health promotion.

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"Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents with Disabilities- a cross sectional study", IJSDR - International Journal of Scientific Development and Research (www.IJSDR.org), ISSN:2455-2631, Vol.7, Issue 11, page no.1283 - 1286, November-2022, Available :https://ijsdr.org/papers/IJSDR2211193.pdf

Volume 7 Issue 11, November-2022

Pages : 1283 - 1286

Paper Reg. ID: IJSDR_202851

Published Paper Id: IJSDR2211193

Downloads: 000347201

Research Area: Health Science 

Country: Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Published Paper PDF: https://ijsdr.org/papers/IJSDR2211193

Published Paper URL: https://ijsdr.org/viewpaperforall?paper=IJSDR2211193

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11469634

ISSN: 2455-2631 | IMPACT FACTOR: 9.15 Calculated By Google Scholar | ESTD YEAR: 2016

An International Scholarly Open Access Journal, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed Journal Impact Factor 9.15 Calculate by Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar | AI-Powered Research Tool, Multidisciplinary, Monthly, Multilanguage Journal Indexing in All Major Database & Metadata, Citation Generator

Publisher: IJSDR(IJ Publication) Janvi Wave

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and The Open Definition