Acute Effects of Walking and Standing on Executive Function in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Feasibility Study

• Published in: Children (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 3; p. 341
• Main Authors: Barudin-Carreiro, Amanda, Camhi, Sarah M, Stanish, Heidi I, Wright, Julie A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.03.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: ADHD; Age; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Body mass index; Children & youth; Demographics; Executive function; Exercise; Families & family life; feasibility; Flexibility; Heart rate; Hyperactivity; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Memory; Mental health; Patient compliance; physical activity; Physical fitness; Pilot projects; Questionnaires; Social networks; Walking; United States > US; Wisconsin; feasibility; ADHD; exercise; executive function; physical activity
• ISSN: 2227-9067; 2227-9067
• DOI: 10.3390/children11030341

Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) struggle with executive functioning (EF). While physical activity (PA) benefits EF, little is known about the impact of specific activities like standing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of performing a rigorous experimental study to compare the effects of walking and standing on EF in children with ADHD. Six areas of feasibility were assessed: recruitment, randomization, treatment adherence, retention, acceptability of the intervention, and implementation. A randomized pilot study using three parallel conditions compared the effects of two modes of activity on EF in children 6-11 with ADHD. While there were no significant differences between walking and standing for EF, analyses suggest that it is feasible to compare effects of standing vs. walking on EF among children with ADHD. This study supports the feasibility of undertaking a larger scale study to evaluate the effect of standing on EF in children with ADHD.