The Effects of a Nurse-led Community-based Sailing Programme on Resilience of School-aged Children With Autism: An RCT

Summary

The goal of this randomised controlled trial is to evaluate the effect of a nurse-led community-based sailing programme on resilience of school-aged children with autism in inclusive education.

Does intervention improve the resilience of participants? Does intervention improve the quality of life, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and social functioning outcomes of participants?

Researchers will compare the effect of intervention (community-based sailing programme) to the attention control group (Crafting activities) at baseline, post-intervention, and at 3-month and 9-month follow-ups.

Participants will:

Participants in the intervention group will participate in a nurse-led community-based sailing programme over six days, with each day consisting of 4 sessions, each lasting an hour, for a total of 24 hours.

Participants in the attention control group will engage in crafting activities with minimal difficulty, focusing on maintaining attention without any emotional or reflective discussions.

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Resilience

Interventions

OTHER

A nurse-led community-based sailing programme

A nurse-led community-based sailing programme is validated by an expert panel including professionals from various fields, such as a registered nurse, academia, and qualified sailing instructors, delivered in a group of 6 participants, incorporating experiential learning, with the aid of materials including dinghies with Universal design, safety boats, buoys, buoyancy aids, supplementing with a waterproof sailing booklet. The intervention is developed and facilitated by a registered nurse (principal investigator).

OTHER

Crafting activities

Participants in the attention control group will participate in crafting activities. Activities match the time and attention dedicated by the intervention group. Activities are designed to have no impact on resilience.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Sailability Hong Kong

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Chinese University of Hong Kong

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Myrian Sze Nga Fan, MSc · Chinese University of Hong Kong

• William Ho Cheung Li, PhD · Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Laurie Long Kwan Ho, PhD · Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Sek Ying Chair, PhD · Chinese University of Hong Kong

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

7 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-07-18

Primary Completion

2026-01-17

Completion

2026-09-17

Countries

• Hong Kong

Study Locations