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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Tamar Heller, PhD, RRTC on Aging with Developmental Disabilities, Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1640 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60608, 312-413-1537, theller@uic.edu, Kelly Hsieh, MS, Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1640 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60608, and James H. Rimmer, PhD, Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1640 West Roosevelt Rd., Chicago, IL 60608.
The present study examined the impact of a health promotion program on the exercise knowledge and perception, fitness, and life satisfaction of adults with Down syndrome. The participants were randomly assigned to the intervention or a control group. The participants included 27 females and 23 males with Down syndrome who have mild or moderate intellectual disabilities age 30-55. Thirty-two participants received a 12-week, three days per week program of exercise and health behavior education. Eighteen persons did not receive training. Data were collected at baseline and immediately following the intervention. Data about the participants were also collected from the caregivers/staff through self and informant reports. Outcome measures included fitness (peak VO2, strength and endurance), barriers and supports for exercising, life satisfaction, exercise perceptions and knowledge, and exercise self-efficacy. Compared to the control group, the intervention resulted in increased fitness, and the participants reported less barriers to exercise, increases in exercise self-efficacy, positive perceptions about exercise, less pain in their daily activity and increases in life satisfaction. These results show that adults with Down syndrome can understand health behavior education and benefit from an exercise program. The significance of these findings, and their implications for adults with other disabilities will be discussed. Also further investigation of long-term exercise adherence will be discussed.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the particiapnts in this session will be able to
Keywords: Health Promotion, Disability
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.