Background: Researchers have reported relatively low estimates of physical activity among children with various developmental disabilities. However, there are inconsistencies within these reports due to methodological issues.
Objective: The goals of this study were to estimate the prevalence of meeting national physical activity guidelines among children with various developmental disabilities and examine the relative influence of different disability descriptors on meeting the guidelines.
Methods: A sample of 3,010 U.S. children between the ages of 6 and 17 years with parent-reported diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, developmental disability, and/or intellectual disability was drawn from the combined 2016 and 2017 datasets of the National Survey of Children's Health. Multivariate logistic regression analyses explored the unique contributions of multiple child characteristics and disability descriptors, such as diagnosis type, severity, complexity, and functionality, toward meeting physical activity guidelines and compared the likelihood of meeting guidelines between children with these diagnoses.
Results: The results of this study reveal that the majority of children with developmental disabilities are not achieving adequate levels of daily physical activity, with only 19% of the study sample engaging in 60 min of physical activity daily. Child age and functionality were significant predictors of meeting physical activity guidelines among children within the sample.
Conclusions: The findings of this study highlight the potentially limiting view of physical activity participation when diagnosis type is considered alone and demonstrate the importance of considering function and other individual factors as significant predictors of physical activity among children with disabilities.
Keywords: Diagnosis; Disability; Function; PA; Youth.
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