NCT02902952

Physical Exercise to Reduce Anxiety in Underserved Children With ASD

Physical Exercise to Reduce Anxiety in Underserved Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 148 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of California, Irvine · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 6 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Anxiety is one of the most frequent comorbidities in children with ASD leading to poor clinical outcomes. Physical exercise has been shown to be a promising and easy to implement intervention for reducing anxiety. However, little is known about the feasibility and efficacy of physical exercise to reduce anxiety in children with ASD from underserved, low-income families. Children with ASD, ages 6 - 12 years old from low-income and Latino families will be recruited for the study and assigned to an exercise intervention group and a sedentary control group. The physical exercise program is an eight-week program, administered three times per week in small groups. Compliance, parent-rated anxiety, and salivary cortisol will be measured before and after completion of the exercise and control group interventions.

Conditions

• Physical Exercise Condition
• Control Condition

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Physical Exercise	An eight week physical exercise intervention
BEHAVIORAL	Control Intervention	An eight week sedentary control intervention

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-10-01
• Primary completion: 2020-01-01
• Completion: 2020-01-01
• First posted: 2016-09-16
• Last updated: 2023-04-04

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United States