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Accelerometer and Survey Assessed Physical Activity in Children With Epilepsy: A Case-Controlled Study
Joan Idowu1, Natalie Pearson2, Collette Meades1
1Research Department, Young Epilepsy, Lingfield, Surrey,United Kingdom.
Insights
Children with epilepsy (CWE) engage in less physical activity (PA) on weekdays compared to healthy peers. Device-based measures reveal lower light and vigorous PA, highlighting a need for further research into these differences.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neurology
- Exercise Science
- Public Health
Background:
- Children with epilepsy (CWE) may have reduced physical activity (PA) levels.
- Limited research exists on device-assessed PA in CWE.
- Understanding PA and sedentary behavior is crucial for this population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare device-assessed PA and sedentary behavior in CWE versus healthy controls.
- To identify factors associated with PA levels in CWE.
Main Methods:
- Sixty CWE (ages 11-15) and 49 controls wore accelerometers for 7 days.
- Participants self-reported PA and sedentary behaviors.
- Linear regression analyzed factors associated with PA.
Main Results:
- CWE showed significantly less light and vigorous PA on weekdays compared to controls.
- No significant differences in sedentary time or weekend PA were observed.
- CWE reported lower overall PA and fewer met WHO guidelines (10% vs 16%).
Conclusions:
- CWE exhibit reduced weekday physical activity, particularly light and vigorous intensity.
- Further investigation is required to elucidate the underlying reasons for these disparities.
- Accelerometer-assessed PA positively correlated with quality of life in CWE.
Purpose:
Anecdotal evidence suggests that children with epilepsy (CWE) are limited in the frequency of their daily physical activity (PA). However, there is limited research utilizing device-based measures of PA. We compared levels of PA and sedentary behavior in CWE (11-15 y) and age- and gender-matched healthy controls.
Method:
Participants (n = 60 CWE [25 males, 35 females] and n = 49 controls [25 males, 24 females]) wore a Actigraph accelerometer (GT3X or GT3X+) for 7 consecutive days during waking hours and self-reported their PA and sedentary behaviors. CWE were compared with control children on time spent in different intensities of PA and on self-reported PA and sedentary behavior. Factors associated with PA were analyzed using linear regression.
Results:
CWE spent less time in accelerometer assessed light (189.15 vs 215.01 min/d, P < .05) and vigorous PA (35.14 vs 44.28 min/d, P < .05) on weekdays compared with controls. There were no significant differences between CWE and control participants in accelerometer assessed time spent sedentary or time spent in PA on weekends. Among CWE, older children engaged in more reported sedentary behavior and younger children spent more time in most domains of PA (P < .05). Furthermore, CWE reported less PA than controls (P = .006). Sixteen percent of controls met World Health Organization PA guidelines compared with 10% of CWE. There was a positive relationship between accelerometer assessed PA and quality of life for CWE.
Conclusion:
CWE spent less time in light and moderate to vigorous PA on weekdays. Further research is needed to understand reasons for these differences.
