Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may not be meeting the recommended amounts of physical activity (PA) or obtain a sufficient amount of sleep, however, few studies have objectively compared PA, sedentary behavior, and sleep quality between typically developing (TD) youth, and youth with ASD. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare levels of PA, sedentary behavior, and sleep quality between youth with ASD and TD youth. Twenty-three children with ASD and 12 TD children wore the Actigraph GT9X accelerometer over seven days and nights to assess activity and sleep. Youth with ASD had significantly greater levels of sedentary behavior (p=.02), and had less sleep efficiency compared to TD youth (p=.0001). Additionally, TD youth were more likely to achieve the recommended levels of PA compared to youth with ASD (p=.003). Results suggest that youth with ASD have poorer health habits compared to TD youth. Interventions should be developed to target health behaviors in youth with ASD.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:honorstheses-1516 |
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
| Creators | Barnes, Demani Barak |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Honors Undergraduate Theses |
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