A systematic review on the effect of exercise interventions on challenging behavior for people with intellectual...

Challenging behavior, such as aggressive or self-injurious behavior, is a major concern for the health and well-being of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and for their relatives, friends, and caregivers. The most common contemporary treatments have drawbacks, such as the adverse side effects of antipsychotics. Exercise interventions could be a good alternative, but little is known about its beneficial effects on challenging behavior in people with ID yet.

A systematic review of the literature was done and methodological quality of the selected studies has been judged on four points. With one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), the effect of exercise interventions on challenging behavior was studied. The effect of low versus high intensity exercise interventions was studied with independent samples T-test using mean improvement scores.

Twenty studies studying the effects of exercise interventions on challenging behavior in people with ID have been found. A quantitative evaluation of the results showed a significant decrease in challenging behavior after participating in an exercise intervention (M=30.9%, 95% CI: 25.0, 36.8). Furthermore, no significant difference was found between high (M=32.2%) and low (M=22.9%) intensity exercise interventions.

The found decrease in challenging behavior shows that exercise seems to be recommendable as an effective treatment for people with challenging behavior and ID. However, most studies were of low methodological quality and more research is needed to optimize recommendations about the exact intensity, duration, frequency, and mode (group or individual) of exercise interventions for this group of people.