ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Intellectual Disabilities
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1625301
BMI-Stratified Outcomes of a Badminton Training Program on Health-Related Fitness in Adults with Mild to Moderate Intellectual Disabilities
Provisionally accepted
- Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
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Results: Baseline health-related physical fitness indicators showed no significant differences among the normal weight, overweight, and obesity groups pre-intervention (p > 0.05). Completion of the badminton exercise program resulted in differential improvements. Significant enhancements were observed for all three groups in aerobic capacity (2-minute step test, resting heart rate, and vital capacity), muscle strength and endurance (right-hand grip strength, standing long jump, and 30-second chair stand test), and coordination (timed up-and-go test), after undergoing pre-and post-tests (p < 0.05). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicating differences between groups showed that compared with the overweight group, the normal weight group had greater improvements in right-hand grip strength; compared with the obesity group, the normal weight group exhibited greater improvements observed in right-hand grip strength and performance in the timed up-and-go test; and compared with the obesity group, the overweight group demonstrated more pronounced reductions in resting heart rate and better timed up-and-go test performance (p < 0.05). There was no significant change in flexibility (sit and reach test, back scratch test) between pre-test and post-test performances. MANOVA results for intergroup analyses showed no significant improvements in the 2-minute step test, lung capacity, left grip strength, sit-ups, standing long jump, sit and reach test, and back scratch test. Conclusion: Badminton exercise significantly improved aerobic capacity, muscle strength and endurance and coordination in adults with ID across all BMI categories. Core fitness indicators (right-hand grip strength, timed up-and-go test, and resting heart rate) exhibited a gradient improvement pattern: normal weight greater improvement than overweight, which was greater than obesity. Therefore, although badminton is an appropriate exercise intervention for adults with ID, BMI and BMI-related factors should be taken into consideration when designing personalized exercise programs to optimize training effects.
Keywords: Badminton Exercise, Physical Fitness, BMI, Intellectual Disabilities, Adult
Received: 08 May 2025; Accepted: 10 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhu, Tan, Li and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yifan Wang, wangyifan@sus.edu.cn
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