Adherence to 24-h movement guidelines among Chinese children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
Only one in six Chinese students with ID meet the full 24-hour movement guidelines, and screen time is the biggest gap.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Takahashi et al. (2023) asked 319 Chinese students with intellectual disability about their daily movement habits. They checked if the kids met the 24-hour movement guidelines: one hour of moderate-to-vigorous activity, two hours or less of screen time, and nine to eleven hours of sleep.
Parents filled out a short survey. The team also recorded each child’s age, sex, and family income.
What they found
Only 17.6 % of the students hit all three targets. Most kids missed the screen-time limit and the physical-activity goal. Older students and those from richer families were even less likely to meet the guidelines.
How this fits with other research
Crane et al. (2010) showed that adults with ID who joined special sports teams got fitter than peers who only had general recreation. Their results line up with H et al.—both papers highlight big physical-activity gaps in the ID population.
Hanzen et al. (2018) audited support plans for adults with visual and profound ID. Leisure goals were rarely written down. H et al. found the same blind spot: screen-time targets were the hardest guideline to meet. Together, the studies show leisure planning is weak across age groups.
Gerber et al. (2011) reviewed physical conditions tied to challenging behavior in people with ID. Poor sleep and pain were red flags. H et al. add low movement to the watch list. The two surveys do not clash; they simply widen the lens from sleep to the full 24-hour cycle.
Why it matters
You now have numbers to show parents and teachers why movement plans matter. Start with a quick screen-time audit: log one typical weekday and one weekend day. Use the log to set a tiny, clear goal—swap thirty minutes of tablet time for an outdoor walk. Pair the walk with a preferred edible or social reward. One small win can open the door to the other two guidelines.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Meeting 24-h movement guidelines for children and adolescents has been associated with improved health indicators. However, the literature examining adherence to 24-h movement guidelines among Chinese children and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) remains lacking. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of meeting the 24-h movement guidelines and its socio-demographic correlates for this population. METHODS: The sample includes 319 Chinese students with ID. Accelerometers are used to measure moderate-to-vigorous physical activity time and sleep duration. Questionnaires are adopted to measure screen time (ST) and demographic factors. Associations among socio-demographic factors, body mass index and 24-h movement are analysed by using multivariable logistic regressions. RESULTS: The proportions of participants who meet none, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, ST, sleep duration and all three recommendations are 8.15%, 33.54%, 54.23%, 75.55% and 17.55%, respectively. In general, multivariable logistic regression analysis indicates that older participants are less likely to meet the ST guidelines [odds ratio (OR): 0.931; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.869-0.998] and more likely to meet the sleep guidelines (OR: 1.106; 95% CI: 1.016-1.204) than younger individuals. Participants with moderate ID are less likely to meet the sleep guidelines (OR: 0.345; 95% CI: 0.140-0.850) than those with profound ID. Individuals from families with middle-income (OR: 0.434; 95% CI: 0.226-0.836) and high-income (OR: 0.219; 95% CI: 0.080-0.605) levels were less likely to meet the physical activity guidelines than those from low-income families. Furthermore, participants from high-income families were less likely to meet ST (OR: 0.426; 95% CI: 0.187-0.969) and all three movement guidelines (OR: 0.083; 95% CI: 0.010-0.659) than those in the low household income groups. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that improve the health-related behaviours of children and adolescents with ID are needed, particularly those that target their increased engagement in physical activity.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2023 · doi:10.1111/jir.13035