Special Olympics Sports Health Improvement Program (SHIP)

Approximately 1-3% of the population has intellectual disability (ID). Because of associated cardiopulmonary defects, musculoskeletal abnormalities, complex medication regimens, and a general lack of preventive health support, people with ID face a number of secondary health consequences which may inhibit their abilities to perform optimally in all domains of life, including sports physical activity.

Though the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Program has identified and helped to alleviate many unmet health needs, there has never been a concerted effort to correlate health status improvement with sports skills development. In 2006, a new Special Olympics program was created which combines a thorough medical history adapted specifically for people with ID, physical examination; nutritional assessment; musculoskeletal assessment; and, sports skills assessment. These assessments combined with nutritional and prehabilitative counseling programs were tested.

One hundred and five athletes in three states were assessed. A comparison group (n = 35) received only general education; the interventional group (n = 70) received individualized programming, intensive instruction, and a prioritized plan. Target groups received the same sport and health assessments as well as the same follow up protocol.

Some factors identified which complicated the implementation of sports and health improvement programs include: medication side effects (23%), asthma (13%), and television usage (29% watch more than 4 hours per day). Despite these factors, however, the athletes reported a significant level of athletic training (51% training more than 2 hours per week).