Objective: According to World Health Organization (WHO), children and adolescents are recommended to exercise at least 150 mins per week to maintain good physical and psychosocial health. This study aimed to determine the barriers of exercise among children and adolescents with diabetes.
Methods: School-aged children who attended Diabetes Clinic at the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital between January 2021 and December 2023 were invited to complete questionnaire in December 2023 on their exercise habits and their barriers in achieving the recommended exercise duration.
Results: 52 children (male: 50%, median age: 12.6 years) completed the questionnaire. 45 had type 1 and 7 had type 2 diabetes, median duration of diabetes was 4.2 years. Median total duration of school PE class per week was 90 minutes, while median total duration of sports outside PE class was 90 minutes. 19 (36.5%) had total duration of exercise less than 150 minutes per week. The top 3 barriers of achieving optimal exercise duration were 1) busy school schedule, 2) weather conditions and 3) location of sports facilities / inconvenience transportation. Interestingly, the group with the lowest socioeconomic status had the lowest rate of achieving the recommended exercise duration (55% vs 100% in the highest socioeconomic class).
Conclusion: More than one-third of our included subjects could not achieved WHO exercise recommendation. To tackle the identified exercise barriers, school-based exercise program especially targeting the less resourceful families is recommended. Also, healthcare providers could promote home exercise to overcome the limitation on time, weather and transportation issues.
I.Y.M. Poon: None.
