Participation in physical activity for children with motor disability is limited and progressively becomes more restricted as the severity increases. Lack of physical activity affects the health status of children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate health-related quality of life (HRQL), sleep characteristics, and pain in non-ambulatory children with multiple disabilities exposed to a community-based physical activity intervention. Twenty-nine children at GMFCS, MACS, and CFCS levels III, IV, and V between 1 and 14 years-of-age participated. A pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design examined the impact of a 5 week physical activity day camp on the parental report of the Caregiver Priorities and Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities (CPCHILD), Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), sleep diary, and Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R). Additional analyses explored the relationship between catagories of physical activity and HRQL, sleep durations, and pain. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in HRQL, sleep durations, and pain scores. One thousand minutes of physical activity over 5 weeks predicted a 5 to 8 point increase in total HRQL scores. Short-term, intensive, and supported physical activity enhanced parental report of HRQL, sleep duration, and pain in non-ambulatory children with multiple disabilities. It appears forty minutes of daily physical activity enhances parental report of HRQL, but not sleep duration and pain.
