Walking habits of adults with mental retardation

The walking activity of men and women with mental retardation residing in community settings was described. Participants were 38 women (M age = .7, SD = 9.5) and 65 men (M age = 35.9, SD = 11.2). They wore pedometers for 7 days. A 2 × 2 factorial ANOVA indicated no significant gender differences in total step counts or between participants with and those without Down syndrome. A post-hoc analysis revealed that participants walked less on Saturday than during the weekdays. Only 21.1% of the women and 21.5% of the men with mental retardation accumulated the recommended 10,000 steps per day.