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Effects of Stair-Climbing Exercise on Health-Related Physical Fitness Measures in Children with Developmental Disabilities

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Abstract

Children with developmental disabilities lack sufficient physical activity in their daily lives. The purpose of this study was to see if children with developmental disabilities who participated in stair-climbing exercises had better physical performance and health status than children with developmental disabilities who did not. This study adopted a pre-and-post-test experimental design, enrolling 30 subjects (experimental group, 15; control group, 15) with developmental disabilities aged 5–7 years from pediatric rehabilitation treatment departments of two regional teaching hospitals in Taiwan. The experimental group received stair-climbing exercises and physical therapy twice a week for eight consecutive weeks. The primary outcomes were health-related physical fitness assessment items, including body composition (body mass index: BMI), cardiorespiratory fitness (stair-climbing test), muscular fitness (knee-bend sit-ups), and flexibility (Chair Sit and Reach Test). The post-test measurements of BMI, cardiorespiratory fitness, sit-ups, and muscular flexibility of children in the experimental group were significantly better than the pre-test measurements. The stair-climbing exercise training results for cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular fitness, and muscular flexibility in the experimental group were significantly better than those in the control group. Stair-climbing exercise improves the physical fitness of children with developmental disabilities. The results of this study suggest that children with developmental disabilities should be encouraged to engage in this convenient and easy stair-climbing exercise to improve physical performance and health status.

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Funding

The study was not supported by any grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of physiotherapy, Jen-Ai Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

    Lin Wen-Li

  2. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, China Medical University Hospital, Taiwan and School of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chien-Lin Lin

  3. Program of Early Intervention, Department of Early Childhood Education, National Taichung University of Education, 140 Min-Shen Road, Taichung, 40306, Taiwan

    Chin-Kai Lin

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  1. Lin Wen-Li
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Correspondence to Chin-Kai Lin.

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This article does not contain any studies involving animals performed by any of the authors. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Wen-Li, L., Lin, CL. & Lin, CK. Effects of Stair-Climbing Exercise on Health-Related Physical Fitness Measures in Children with Developmental Disabilities. J Dev Phys Disabil (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-023-09927-3

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