Effects Of Exercise Intervention On Cardiovascular Fitness And Gross Motor Development In Children With ADHD

PURPOSE: This study investigated the effects of in-line skating exercise on cardiovascular fitness (CF) and gross motor development (GMD) in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: Twenty-six 6-10 year-old boys participated. They were matched for age, ADHD type, and comorbidity before being randomly assigned to one of the two groups: experimental group (EG: baseline [T1], post-test [T2], and follow-up [T3]) and wait-list control group (CG: control condition [T1-T2] and intervention condition [T2-T3]). Participants in the EG underwent a 12-week inline skating exercise (2 times/week, 80-min. each) between T1 and T2, while participants in the CG received no exercise intervention and were asked to maintain their daily routine. Thereafter, the CG received intervention in the following 12 weeks (T2-T3). CF and GMD were measured using the 20-meter Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) and Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2), respectively. To assess the effects of the exercise intervention, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a 2 (time: T1 vs. T2) x 2 (group: EG vs. CG) mixed-model factorial design was conducted. The Tukey’s post hoc test was performed if significant group differences emerged. The test of simple main effect was followed up with a significant interaction effect. Then, paired-sample t-tests were performed to evaluate the effects of exercise intervention in the CG (T2 vs. T3) and the potential maintenance effects in the EG (T2 vs. T3). The level of significance was set at p < .05. RESULTS: The main findings revealed that (a) the EG exhibited significant improvements on the locomotor skills (43.54 vs. 39.23, F = 54.86, p < .001), object control skills (44.92 vs. 40.38, F = 43.88, p < .001), and PACER (33.00 vs. 21.08, F = 43.07, p < .001) after the intervention relative to their baseline in T1, (b) the CG performed significantly better on the locomotor skills (43.15 vs. 41.62, t = 3.83, p = .002), object control skills (44.23 vs. 41.54, t = 2.59, p = .024), and PACER (27.38 vs. 22.08, t = 2.72, p = .019) at T3 than at T2, and (c) the EG did not reveal a significant difference in any of the outcomes between the T2 and T3. CONCLUSION: In-line skating exercise seems to represent a feasible and effective way of increasing CF and GMD in children with ADHD. Taiwan MOST grant 103-2410-H-017-026-MY3 & MOST 106-2410-H-017-022-MY3