Effects of Exercise Snacks on Physical Health and Cognitive Function in Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities

Background:

Adults with intellectual disability commonly maintain sedentary daily routines, resulting in progressive decline in physical fitness and cognitive performance. Traditional long-duration exercise interventions are difficult to implement for this population due to behavioral and cognitive limitations. Exercise snacks, consisting of repeated ultra-short exercise bursts, are easy to carry out and show promising benefits for cognition.

Methods:

A randomized controlled crossover design will be adopted. Twenty-four adults aged 18-35 years with mild to moderate ID will complete three conditions in random sequence: no-exercise control, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and exercise snacks (ES). A 1-week washout interval separates different interventions.

Intervention protocols:

• Control: maintain habitual daily activities.
• HIIT: one afternoon session, 10 sets of 6-second high-knee exercise with 9 seconds rest.
• ES: morning and afternoon sessions every day; each session contains 5 sets of 6-second high-knee exercise with 9 seconds rest.

Main measurements include prefrontal cortex activation via EEG, cognitive function, stereotyped behaviors, and heart rate variability. Repeated-measures statistical models will be used for data analysis.

Inclusion criteria

• Aged 18-35 years old;
• Clinically diagnosed mild to moderate intellectual disability;
• Able to follow simple verbal instructions and complete exercise protocols;
• No contraindications for moderate physical activity confirmed by medical inquiry;
• Participants or legal guardians provide written informed consent;
• Maintain stable daily routine and do not participate in other structured exercise programs during the trial.

Exclusion criteria

• Severe physical disabilities, orthopedic injury or neurological disorders that restrict movement;
• History of cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled hypertension or other exercise contraindications;
• Current psychiatric medication that significantly affects motor or cognitive function;
• Inability to cooperate with EEG and physiological signal collection;
• Pregnancy;
• Participation in other interventional studies within the past 3 months.