EXAMINING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES: A CONSENSUAL QUALITATIVE RESEARCH STUDY

Purpose: Children with disabilities are less likely to meet activity, sleep, and sedentary time recommendations than their typically-developing peers. This study was a cross-sectional investigation of the activity levels of ambulatory children with disabilities between the ages of 5 and 10 years.
The purpose was to examine the children’s physical activity, sleep, and sedentary behavior.

Number of Subjects: Fifteen parents participated in the virtual interviews.

Methods: Using consensual qualitative research, themes were identified from the parental reports from interviews conducted between December 2021 and February 2022. Saturation was achieved. Credibility was established through external auditor reviews, reflective memoing, and establishing consensus within the research team.

Results: Parents identified factors that helped and hindered their child’s activity at the personal, familial, and community levels, as well as the chronosystem. Most parents were not satisfied with their children's physical activity and sedentary behavior levels but were able to identify areas that could facilitate activity.

Conclusions: The factors that facilitate and restrict activity and sleep occur at many levels and are unique for children with disabilities. Parents identified clear opportunities to improve physical activity and sleep while reducing sedentary time. Through the qualitative analysis, recommendations can be made to support the development of healthy activity patterns in children with disabilities.

Clinical Relevance: As physical therapists, we can promote healthy patterns early in childhood to prevent the harmful effects of sedentary behavior and poor sleep. We should be helping identify barriers to healthy patterns and supporting those facilitating factors with the families we work with.