Efficacy of a health promotion program for adults with intellectual disabilities

Background:

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have typically had limited access to health promotion opportunities, and experience greater health risks than the general population. Healthy Lifestyles for People with Intellectual Disabilities (HLID) is a 3-day health promotion workshop with six months of follow-up meetings focused on improving health behaviors and meeting health goals. This presentation will report on findings from a randomized controlled trial of the HLID program.

Methods:

A total of 131 adults with ID were assigned to the intervention condition (n=71) or the control condition (n=60). Participants completed measures of health knowledge, health behaviors, self-efficacy, health status, health care utilization, and secondary conditions at baseline, one month after the workshop, at the end of the full intervention, and six months post-intervention.

Results:

At baseline, control group members demonstrated significantly better health knowledge, but this difference was no longer apparent after the workshop. By the end of the HLID program, intervention participants scored significantly higher on self-efficacy and health behaviors. Six months after the end of the program, intervention participants reported significantly fewer secondary conditions than control group members.

Conclusions:

Findings indicate that the HLID program helps adults with ID improve and maintain their health as compared to no intervention. Future efforts will work to increase the efficacy of the program through greater involvement of support networks (e.g. family members, transition classrooms, group home staff).