Correlates of physical activity, sedentary time, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in autistic adults without intellectual disabilities.

Lee et al. (2025) asked autistic adults without intellectual disability to fill out online surveys. They wanted to know how daily sitting time and physical activity relate to heart-health and mental-health risk factors.

The team used standard questionnaires and self-report measures. They looked at minutes spent sitting, minutes of exercise, blood-pressure worries, mood scores, and stress markers.

More sitting time predicted higher cardiovascular and mental-health risks. The link was clear even after they adjusted for age and sex.

Surprisingly, amount of physical activity showed no significant ties to the same risk factors. Simply put, sitting hurt; exercising did not help in this data set.

The finding seems to clash with Ketcheson et al. (2018) who saw preschoolers with autism sit less than typical peers. Age explains the gap: little kids move more; adults move less.

It also looks opposite to Healy et al. (2017) where autistic teens watched more TV and were heavier. Development stage matters: teens pile on screen time while adults feel the medical consequences.

The study extends Healy et al. (2020) who linked bedroom TVs to child screen use. Daehyoung moves the lens to adults and adds hard health outcomes like blood pressure and mood.

Finally, it backs Healy et al. (2022) who listed boredom and no transport as top exercise barriers. If those barriers keep adults inactive, the real health threat may be the sitting that fills the empty time.

For BCBAs coaching autistic adults, focus on breaking up sitting before pushing gym plans. Build stand-and-stretch cues into work sessions, schedule short walks after meals, and teach clients to set hourly movement timers. Small reductions in sedentary minutes may yield faster health gains than chasing 10 000 steps.