Proportions of youth with visual impairments meeting 24-hr movement guidelines

Recent movement behaviour guidelines prescribe the optimal time spent in physical activity, screen time, and sleep across a 24-hr period. The proportion of youth with visual impairments meeting 0, 1, 2, or all 3 of these 24 movement guidelines is unknown. The primary purpose of this observational, cross-sectional analysis was to examine the proportions of youth with visual impairments in the United States who partially or fully meet the physical activity, screen time, and sleep duration guidelines. A secondary purpose of this analysis was to examine whether demographic variables were associated with the odds of youth with visual impairments meeting these guidelines.

This study included 561 youth with visual impairments from the 2016 to 2017 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). Accounting for the NSCH sampling plan, Complex Samples was used to estimate the prevalence of meeting 24-hr movement guidelines, and a multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the odds ratio of guidelines met across different demographic factors.

Of the participants in this study, 18.7%, 50.7%, and 73.2% met physical activity, sleep, and screen time guidelines, respectively. Just 5.8% of the sample met all three of the 24-hr movement guidelines, whereas 10.6% did not meet any of the three guidelines.

The proportion of the sample meeting of all three guidelines was low, thus depriving the majority of this population of the physiological and psychological health benefits of meeting each guideline. Moreover, the study identifies physical inactivity as a key risk factor that requires attention in this population.