Physical Activity of Children with Physical Disabilities: Associations with Environmental and Behavioral Variables at Home and School

Sit, Cindy; Li, Ru; McKenzie, Thomas L.; Cerin, Ester; Wong, Stephen; Sum, Raymond; Leung, Elean

doi:10.3390/ijerph16081394

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Physical Activity of Children with Physical Disabilities: Associations with Environmental and Behavioral Variables at Home and School

^1,*

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⁶

Department of Sports Science and Physical Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

Department of Physical Education, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

School of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA

⁴

Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne 3000, Australia

⁵

School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

⁶

Physical Education Unit, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(8), 1394; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081394

Received: 5 March 2019 / Revised: 11 April 2019 / Accepted: 13 April 2019 / Published: 17 April 2019

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the physical activity (PA) of children with physical disabilities (PD) and its associated environmental and behavioral factors at home and at school. One hundred and forty-seven Hong Kong children (mean age = 13.5 ± 2.5 years) with PD from three special schools participated. We used BEACHES (Behaviors of Eating and Activity for Children’s Health: Evaluation System) to assess their PA and associated variables at home (before dinner) and during four school settings (before classes, recess, lunch breaks, after classes) on four school days. Overall, the children were typically inactive and spent little time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), range = 6.3% to 17.0% across settings. At home, children were more active when fathers were present (p < 0.001). At school, prompts to be active contributed to their MVPA% before classes (p < 0.01) and during recess and lunch breaks (both p < 0.001). The presence of a child’s mother was positively associated with MVPA% before classes (p < 0.001) and the presence of other children was associated with MVPA% during recess and lunch breaks (both p < 0.05). With children with PD accruing small amounts of MVPA in both home and school settings, multifaceted interventions reflecting both contextual and personal factors should be considered in order to increase the health-enhancing PA of this population. View Full-Text

Keywords: youth; sedentary behavior; observation; family; peers

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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MDPI and ACS Style

Sit, C.; Li, R.; McKenzie, T.L.; Cerin, E.; Wong, S.; Sum, R.; Leung, E. Physical Activity of Children with Physical Disabilities: Associations with Environmental and Behavioral Variables at Home and School. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 1394. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081394

AMA Style

Sit C, Li R, McKenzie TL, Cerin E, Wong S, Sum R, Leung E. Physical Activity of Children with Physical Disabilities: Associations with Environmental and Behavioral Variables at Home and School. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(8):1394. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081394

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sit, Cindy, Ru Li, Thomas L. McKenzie, Ester Cerin, Stephen Wong, Raymond Sum, and Elean Leung. 2019. "Physical Activity of Children with Physical Disabilities: Associations with Environmental and Behavioral Variables at Home and School" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 8: 1394. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081394

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