Effectiveness of an adapted physical activity programme on weight management in adolescents with intellectual disability in Hong Kong: A cluster randomized controlled trial

Pediatric obesity is a global public health issue. Children with intellectual disability (ID) are more vulnerable to obesity as they are less likely to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Our previous cross-sectional study among 524 ID children in Hong Kong (age range: 6-21 years, mean: 12.2 years) revealed a prevalence rate of overweight and obesity of 31.3%, 1.6 times higher than their typically developing counterparts. Adolescent children were more likely to be overweight and obese than younger children. Compared to the overwhelming interventions to reduce obesity in typically developing children, few have addressed this population. Existing evidence has suggested that physical activity (PA) interventions may result in a small to moderate effect in reducing pediatric obesity. We therefore developed an adapted physical activity (APA) programme, primarily aiming to reduce obesity among a sample of ID children in Hong Kong. With a cluster RCT study design, 62 overweight and obese ID children (aged 12-18 years) were recruited and assigned into intervention (n=30) and control (n=32) groups. Those in the intervention group have been receiving a 3-stage APA programme for 9 months. Outcome measures consisted of body weight status, BMI, body fitness percentage, and waist-to-hip ratio. A generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) will be used to compare between-group differences in the changes. The programme commenced in September 2018 and will be end in June 2019. We will report the study results in the presentation.