Effects of a PA Intervention for Fatness and Fitness in Adolescents With Intellectual Disability
Condition: Obesity; Health-related Physical Fitness; Intellectual Disability
MeSH terms: Intellectual Disability
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The proposed study will be a 12-week school-based physical activity (PA) program with a
      2-armed randomized controlled trial (RCT) design. It will target overweight and obese
      children with intellectual disability (ID). The primary outcomes will be both fatness-related
      and fitness-related outcomes. In addition, the effect of the intervention on blood pressure
      will be evaluated as the secondary outcomes.
    

Detailed description: 
      Childhood obesity and lower HRPF levels are major threats to public health. The previous
      research finds that children with ID are more vulnerable to be obesity and lower HRPF levels
      than general pediatric population. In addition, the transition from adolescence to young
      adulthood is recognized as a particularly high-risk period for weight gain. However,
      Interventions to reduce obesity and improve HRPF levels among adolescents with ID are scarce.
      The main purpose of this study is to implement and evaluate a fun game-based PA program to
      reduce overweight/obesity and improve health-related physical fitness (HRPF) levels among
      adolescents with ID (aged 12-18 years old).

      The study consists of a 3-month intervention and a 3-month follow-up. Totally Forty-eight
      overweight/obese adolescents with mild intellectual disability (ID) will be recruited from
      special schools in China and then randomly assigned into two groups (n=24 for each group).
      Selection criteria for participants are: (1) children with mild ID; (2) aged 12-18 years old;
      (3) being overweight or obese; (4) without physical disability and other relevant health
      conditions. Participants in the experimental group will receive a fun game-based PA program
      (60 min/time, 2 sessions/week, 24 sessions totally) at school. No intervention will be
      provided to participants in the control group.

      All participants in the two groups (N=48) will undertake repeated measurements on a set of
      study outcomes for three times. All measurements are non-invasive and no potential
      consequences are expected. In addition, questionnaires will be used to collect each
      participant's information of socio-demographic characteristics, physical activity level and
      eating habits (about 15 minutes).

      The investigators expect the findings from the study would make up the knowledge gap and help
      eliminate existing health inequities among children with ID. It would serve as an example for
      use of other researchers, policy-makers, and the public to tackle off obesity among
      adolescents with ID in a global scale. If effective, this program would be welcomed and
      adopted by other special schools in the future. In addition, the effective model can also be
      extended to reach students with ID in normal schools.
    

Intervention name(s): School-based PA intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Provide moderate to vigorous fun-game based exercises for adolescents with ID in schools to help them reduce obesity and improve fitness levels.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: RCT
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: Overweight; Obesity; Fitness; Adolescents; Intellectual disability