Nakhostin-Ansari A, Shayestehfar M, Hasanzadeh A, Gorgani F, Memari A. Organized physical activity and sedentary behaviors in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disability. World J Psychiatry 2023; 13(9): 685-697 [PMID: 37771640 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i9.685]
Corresponding Author of This Article
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
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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, 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 bythe 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
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
There is little data on physical activity (PA), organized PA (OPA), and sedentary behaviors in children with neurodevelopmental disorders in developing countries.
Research motivation
In this large-scale study, we evaluated PA levels among children with neurodevelopmental disorders in the context of a developing country to help identify the groups which benefit the most from the interventions to improve PA levels, which can be a basis for future studies.
Research objectives
To examine OPA, non-OPA, and sedentary behaviors and their associated factors in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), cerebral palsy (CP), and intellectual disability (ID).
Research methods
A total of 1020 children and adolescents with ASD, CP, and ID living in Tehran between 2011 and 2021 were assessed regarding the child and family information as well as the Children’s Leisure Activities Study Survey.
Research results
The results showed that the OPA level was significantly lower than non-OPA in all groups. Moderate to vigorous PA levels were higher among children with ASD compared to children with CP and ID.
Research conclusions
The PA levels are lower than the recommended levels in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities living in a developing country, and there is a need for interventions to improve PA levels, especially OPA, in this group.
Research perspectives
Future studies should focus on evaluating PA levels in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities in other developing countries, and aim to design intervention to improve OPA and total PA in this group.
