Physical activity and sedentary behaviour among children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities during the COVID‐19 lockdown in China

Abstract

Background In the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic, preliminary research has reported a significant decline in physical activity (PA) and an increase in sedentary behaviour (SB) among typically developed children and adolescents. Limited research has looked at the current situation of PA and SB during this pandemic among children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities (ID). This study investigated the situations about PA and SB among school‐aged children and adolescents with ID on China's mainland during the COVID‐19 outbreak. Methods In total, 837 parents of children and adolescents (ages 6–18 years) with ID from 15 special education schools of Shandong Province in China were recruited through convenience sampling in the study. Parents reported PA and SB among children and adolescents with ID through the Children's Leisure Activities Study Survey‐Chinese version (CLASS‐C) online questionnaires. Results From parents' reports, Chinese children and adolescents with ID during the COVID‐19 pandemic participated in approximately 10 min of moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity, and engaged in approximately 530 min of SB every day. Meanwhile, only 17.4% of children and adolescents with ID were able to achieve the recommendation of 60 min of daily moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity and 76.1% of children and adolescents with ID spent more than 2 h on SB per day. Additionally, the problems of decrease PA and excessive SB were more prominent in older adolescents with ID compared with younger children with ID. Conclusion In China, the low level of PA and high level of SB is particularly evident in children and adolescents with ID during the outbreak of COVID‐19. The great majority of children and adolescents with ID did not meet the recommended amount of PA while undergoing excessive SB under the long‐term home quarantine environment. Therefore, immediate attention and great effort should be made to deal with this severe situation among this vulnerable population in the mainland of China.

The Associations Between Accelerometer-Measured Physical Activity Levels and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Consistent with previous studies, children and adolescents with IDs spent 34.92 ± 26.00 min/day in MVPA, and only 16 participants (13.7%) met the 60-min/day MVPA guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, Yuan et al ( 2021 ) used an online questionnaire to measure PA levels in children and adolescents with IDs during the COVID-19 pandemic and observed that participants spent 10 min/day in MVPA, and only 17.4% met the 60-min/day MVPA guidelines. A previous accelerometer-based study reported that children with IDs spent 49.4 min/day in MVPA with only 23.7% meeting the MVPA guidelines (Downs et al, 2016 ); Zhu et al ( 2020 ) reported that youth with moderate to severe IDs spent 29.82 ± 20.65 min/day in MVPA.…”

Physical Activity During the Corona Period and Its Relationship with the Physical and Mental Health of Children and Adolescents

“…American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for leisure screen time is two hours per day or less for children (8). Studies have shown that unprecedented lifestyle stressors associated with the pandemic have led to a decrease in the level of physical activity (9)(10)(11)(12), an increase in screen time (9,10,12), and BMI (13) hence aggravating the childhood obesity epidemic.…”

Nature of student housing in Ghana: drivers of physical health condition effects on students living with disability (SWD) in Purpose-Built university housing

“…More specifically, the inclusion of building support systems has been noticed to substantially impact the living experiences of people across sectors, including health (Lontsi and Wandjie, 2022; Zorec et al ., 2022). However, building designs that support persons with disability has always been an ongoing debate within the health sector (Tucker et al ., 2022; Yuan et al ., 2022a, b; Lai et al ., 2022). According to Attakora-Amaniampong et al .…”