Objectively Measured Physical Activity And Sedentary Time In Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

1117 Board #243 May 27 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

PURPOSE: Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are purportedly inactive, but this conclusion is inferred from data on children and youth, and parent proxy reports. Objective assessment using activity monitors is needed to better understand physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior in this population segment. The purpose of this study was to examine the general levels of PA and sedentary time in adults with ASD using accelerometry.

METHODS: Eleven adults aged 18-55 (6 females; mean = 31.9, SD = 12.5) and diagnosed with ASD were included in the study. Participants wore a GT3X+ accelerometer on their right hip for 7 days during waking hours except water-based activities, and accelerometers were programmed to collect data in 60-second epochs. ≥ 10 hours of device wear was defined as a valid day and ≥ 3 valid days was required for each participant to be included in the analyses. Activity intensities were determined using the following cutoffs (counts/min): sedentary <100, low 100-499, light 500-2019, moderate 2020-5999, and vigorous >5999 (Tudor-Locke et al., 2010), and non-wear period was determined by a minimum length of 90 min of consecutive 0-counts by Choi algorithm (Choi et al., 2011). Descriptive statistics were calculated for moderate to vigorous PA, light- and low-intensity PA, sedentary time, and walking steps.

RESULTS: The average total monitored length was 761.5 min/day (SD = 76.4). Results of the PA measures are as follows: moderate to vigorous PA - 42.8 min/day (SD = 30.5); light PA - 109.9 min/day (SD = 32.4); low PA - 97.9 min/day (SD = 33.9); and sedentary time - 511 min/day (SD = 84.6). The daily average percentage of time spent in moderate to vigorous PA was 5.8% (SD = 4.4), and the average step counts were 3799.7 steps/day (SD = 2953.9). 81.8% of the participants met the recommended PA guidelines of 150 min of moderate to vigorous PA per week.

CONCLUSION: Although the majority of adults with ASD in this study met the PA guidelines, they were also extremely sedentary. More research is needed to determine if sedentary time, rather than PA, should be targeted to improve preventive health in adults with ASD.