Abstracts

Rationale: Engaging in recommended amounts of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep—collectively referred to as movement behaviours—each day may be an effective strategy to prevent or manage mental health co-morbidities for young people with active and inactive epilepsy. However, associations between 24-hour movement guideline adherence and mental health disorders have not been examined among these groups. Addressing this knowledge gap will help identify potential behavioural intervention strategies. Thus, the purpose of the present study was twofold: 1) examine 24-hour movement guideline adherence among young people with active epilepsy and inactive epilepsy compared to population norms; and 2) investigate associations between movement behaviour guideline adherence and mental health disorders among each of these subpopulations.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from the 2016 to 2019 cycles of the National Survey of Children's Health was used. Parental/caregiver reports of movement behaviours (physical activity, screen time, sleep, sport participation) were used to determine adherence to the 24-hour movement guidelines and associations with mental health disorders (anxiety problems, depression, behavioural/conduct problems, ADD/ADHD) for young people with active (n = 663) and inactive epilepsy (n = 526) as well as population norms (n = 49,067) between 6 to 17 years old. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted.

Results: Young people with active epilepsy were significantly less likely to meet the 24-hour movement guidelines than population norms, which was largely driven by below average levels of physical activity guideline adherence. Sport participation was lower among both young people with active and inactive epilepsy; seizure severity and condition-related limitations played an influential role. Beneficial associations were generally observed between 24-hour movement guideline adherence and mental health disorders, although for young people with active and inactive epilepsy, there was considerable variability among these relationships.

Conclusions: Further dissemination of the International League Against Epilepsy’s Task Force on Sports and Epilepsy report can help improve promotion of physical activity and sport participation among young people with active and inactive epilepsy. The relationship between 24-hour movement guideline adherence and mental health disorders is complex among young people with epilepsy and longitudinal research is needed to determine causal links.

Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: None.