Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2023; 13(9): 685-697
Published online Sep 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i9.685
Organized physical activity and sedentary behaviors in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disability
Amin Nakhostin-Ansari, Monir Shayestehfar, Alireza Hasanzadeh, Fateme Gorgani, Amirhossein Memari
Amin Nakhostin-Ansari, Monir Shayestehfar, Amirhossein Memari, Sports Medicine Research Center, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1417653761, Iran
Alireza Hasanzadeh, Medical School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1417653761, Iran
Fateme Gorgani, Digestive Disease Research Institute, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1417653761, Iran
Author contributions: Memari A was the guarantor; Nakhostin-Ansari A, Shayestehfar M, and Memari A designed and implemented the study; Nakhostin-Ansari A analyzed the data; Nakhostin-Ansari A, Shayestehfar M, Gorgani F, and Hasanzadeh A wrote the initial draft of the manuscript; and all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Sports Medicine Research Center, No. 57842.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Approval No. IR.TUMS.NI.REC.1401.031).
Informed consent statement: Written consent was obtained from the participant’s parents/caregivers before entering the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: Dataset is available from the corresponding author at monir.shayestefar@gmail.com. Consent was not obtained but presented data are anonymized, and the risk of identification is low.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Monir Shayestehfar, PhD, Researcher, Sports Medicine Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Jalal-e-al-e-Ahmad Expressway, Tehran 1417653761, Iran. monir.shayestefar@gmail.com
Received: May 7, 2023
Peer-review started: May 7, 2023
First decision: June 21, 2023
Revised: July 11, 2023
Accepted: August 1, 2023
Article in press: August 1, 2023
Published online: September 19, 2023
Processing time: 131 Days and 1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

There is little data on physical activity (PA), organized PA (OPA), and sedentary behaviors in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders in developing countries.

AIM

To examine OPA, non-OPA, and sedentary behaviors and their associated factors in children and adolescents with ASD, cerebral palsy (CP), and intellectual disability (ID).

METHODS

A total of 1020 children and adolescents with ASD, CP, and ID were assessed regarding the child and family information as well as the Children’s Leisure Activities Study Survey.

RESULTS

The results showed that the OPA level was significantly lower than non-OPA in all groups. Furthermore, the OPA level was significantly lower in the CP group compared to ASD and ID groups (P < 0.001). Also, moderate (P < 0.001), vigorous (P < 0.05), and total (P < 0.001) physical activity levels were significantly different between all three groups, with the values being higher in the ASD group compared to the other two. The mean of the total sedentary behavior duration in the ASD group (1819.4 min/week, SD: 1680) was significantly lower than in the CP group (2687 min/week, SD: 2673) (P = 0.007) but not ID group (2176 min/week, SD: 2168.9) (P = 0.525).

CONCLUSION

Our findings remark on the participation rate of PA, OPA, and sedentary behaviors of children and adolescents with ASD, CP, and ID in a developing country. In contrast, the need for developing standards of PA/OPA participation in neurodevelopmental disorders is discussed.

Keywords: Neurodevelopmental disorders; Physical disability; Mental disability; Active lifestyle

Core Tip: There is little data on physical activity (PA), organized PA (OPA), and sedentary behaviors in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in developing countries. A total of 1020 children and adolescents with ASD, cerebral palsy (CP), and intellectual disability (ID) were assessed regarding their physical activity. Our findings remark on the participation rate of PA, OPA, and sedentary behaviors of children and adolescents with ASD, CP, and ID in a developing country.