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Brief Report: Preliminary Efficacy of a Judo Program to Promote Participation in Physical Activity in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

To examine the preliminary efficacy of an 8-week judo program to promote moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and reduce sedentary behavior (SB) in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Fourteen children diagnosed with ASD participated in a weekly judo program over a period of 8 weeks. Participants wore an Actigraph accelerometer to measure activity levels at baseline and post-judo. All 14 children attended at least 75% of the 8 judo classes. Percentage of time spent in daily MVPA (8% vs 4%, p = .05) increased following the intervention. A high rate of participation and an increase in time spent in MVPA was observed following the 8-week program. Further research to examine causal mechanisms is warranted.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Toni Jennings Exceptional Education Institute for all of their support for this study, and a special thanks to all of the participants who made this study possible.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, College of Health Professions and Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Jeanette M. Garcia

  2. School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy, College of Health Professions and Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32827, USA

    Nicholas Leahy, Paola Rivera, Justine Renziehausen, David H. Fukuda & Jeffrey R. Stout

  3. Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, College of Health Professions and Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Judith Samuels

Authors
  1. Jeanette M. Garcia
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  2. Nicholas Leahy
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  3. Paola Rivera
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  4. Justine Renziehausen
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  5. Judith Samuels
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  6. David H. Fukuda
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  7. Jeffrey R. Stout
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Contributions

JMG conceptualized the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. NL assisted with data analysis, interpretation of results, and writing/editing the manuscript. PR assisted with data collection, and writing/editing the manuscript. JR assisted with data collection and writing/editing the manuscript. JS assisted with conceptualizing the study, and writing/editing the manuscript. DHF assisted with data analysis and writing/editing the manuscript. JRS assisted with interpretation of the results and writing/editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jeanette M. Garcia.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Research Involving Human Participants

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. No research was performed on animals in this study.

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Garcia, J.M., Leahy, N., Rivera, P. et al. Brief Report: Preliminary Efficacy of a Judo Program to Promote Participation in Physical Activity in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 1418–1424 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04338-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04338-w

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