Enhancing Health through Physiotherapy – 50 years and beyondFulltext of the abstract in: http://www.sipcongress.org/files/SIPC_2014_Abstract_E-Book.pdfPoster Session: Physical ActivityBackground: Adolescent weight status is an
increasing effect of health problems. Adolescent
weight problems are often overlooked as weight
assessment is not considered a priority in
adolescents.
Objective: This study aimed to compare the body
mass index (BMI) and patterns of out-of-school
activity participation in young people with and
without physical disabilities, and examine the
relationship between BMI and the activity
participate on patterns among young people with
physical disabilities.
Methods: Thirty-nine young persons with physical
disabilities (23 male, 16 female; mean age ±
standard deviation, SD: 18.79±1.99 years) and 70
healthy individuals (44 male, 26 female; mean
age± SD: 18.64±0.74 years) participated in the
study. The diversity, intensity, companionship,
location and enjoyment of participation in activities
were evaluated using the Children’s Assessment
of Participation and Enjoyment (CAPE) scale.
Body height and weight were obtained from the
participants’ therapists and BMI was calculated.
Results: Young people with physical disabilities,
regardless of their gender, had significantly lower
CAPE-derived scores in almost all types of activity
than the control participants (p<0.05). Moreover,
BMI was significantly higher in the group with
physical disabilities than in the control group
(p<0.001). Regression analysis further showed
that the CAPE score for physical activity explained
17.2% of the variance in BMI (p=0.021). Young
people with physical disabilities generally had
lower levels of activity participation and a higher
BMI than their healthy counterparts. The
perception of enjoyment during physical activities
was an important determinant of BMI in this group
of participants.
Conclusion(s): Our results could lead to
improvements in the design of activity
programmes to combat obesity in people with
physical disabilities