Interventions for health-related physical fitness and overweight and obesity in children with intellectual disability: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Aiwei Wang, Yang Gao*, Jingjing Wang, Tamara J. Brown, Yan Sun, Siyue Yu, Tomas K. Tong, Linda L. D. Zhong, Shirley Siu Ming Fong, Frédéric Dutheil, Julien S. Baker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
64 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background: Poor health-related physical fitness (HRPF) and overweight and obesity are common health problems for children with intellectual disability. This study aimed to review existing lifestyle intervention studies, and identify effective strategies for this population. 

Methods: A systematic search was undertaken in three databases. The random-effects model was used to pool the weighted results by inverse variance methods, and the I2 statistic was applied to assess heterogeneity among the included studies. 

Results: Most of the identified interventions (27/29) adopted physical activity (PA). For obesity-related outcomes, the results showed no significant effect of PA studies on reducing obesity. For HRPF outcomes, significant effects were found on 6-min walk distance (51.86 m, 95% CI [16.49, 87.22], p < .05). 

Conclusions: PA is the predominant intervention component adopted and may contribute to improving cardiopulmonary fitness; but the lack of research limits our ability to draw any confirmed conclusion on obesity-related outcomes and other HRPF outcomes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1073-1087
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities
Volume35
Issue number5
Early online date20 Apr 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2022

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

User-Defined Keywords

  • children
  • intellectual disability
  • intervention
  • obesity
  • overweight
  • physical fitness

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