Current state of physical activity research in four disability groups

BACKGROUND: The Behavioral Epidemiology Framework can be used to categorize health-related behavior into one of five phases to examine the current state of research. In the context of physical activity (PA) research, the phases include: Phase One (P1), establishing links between PA and health; Phase Two (P2), developing methods for measuring PA; Phase Three (P3), identifying factors that influence PA; Phase Four (P4), evaluating interventions to change PA behavior; Phase Five (P5), translating research into practice. The purpose of this review was to use the framework to examine PA research for persons with physical disabilities (PWD) including multiple sclerosis (MS), spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and spina bifida (SB). METHOD: A review was conducted searching Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar and EBSCOHOST from 2000-2012 using key words ‘physical activity', ‘health promotion', ‘exercise' and ‘physical fitness' in addition to the specific disability. Articles were categorized into P1-5 following coding rules of the framework. Researchers were trained and had to reach 80% inter-rater reliability coding articles. RESULTS: 408 articles met the inclusion criteria:139 for MS, 64 for TBI, 113 for SCI, 77 for SB. 43-55% of total articles were classified into P1, 12-21% in P2, 22-32% in P3, and 4-10% in P4-5. CONCLUSION: Regardless of disability type, an emphasis on P1 emerged, indicating that PA research for PWD is in early stages of development. The small percentage of studies in P4-5 demonstrate a need to develop and disseminate PA interventions to PWD, which is consistent with several public health initiatives.