141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

290271
Scoping review of health and wellness interventions for people aging with a physical disability

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Aimee Verrall, MPH , Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Anjali Truitt, MPH , Institute for Public Health Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Katherine Schomer, MA , Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Samantha Atherholt, PhD , Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Mark Jensen, PhD , Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Introduction. There is an urgent need to increase knowledge, services, and evidence-based health and wellness (HW) interventions for people aging with and into disability as traditional aging services are expanding to serve this subpopulation. People who are aging with or into physical disabilities have high prevalence of comorbid conditions and health risk factors and this subpopulation is projected to increase dramatically in the next 20 years. A scoping review of the HW intervention literature was conducted in order to: (1) assess the adaptability of the interventions for people aging with a physical disability and (2) contrast the interventions with evidenced-based HW interventions in aging populations that are being implemented across the U.S. on a larger scale.

Methods. PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched for peer-reviewed articles about adults with spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, stroke, osteoarthritis, post-polio syndrome, and muscular dystrophy. The inclusion criteria for articles included: (1) addressed promotion of HW in adults with physical disabilities; (2) focused on community-based behavioral or educational intervention that targeted HW.

Results. Data were extracted from 82 articles meeting inclusion criteria. The most common HW interventions included exercise, self-management, counseling, and health education, which often paralleled interventions being deployed by aging agencies.

Conclusion. There is support for adapting concepts and strategies from HW interventions from the fields of both aging and disability by applying standard adaptation models to create evidence-based HW interventions for the subpopulation of people aging with and into disability.

Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Name 3 ways someone can age into disability Name 3 ways someone ages with a disability Describe 3 differences between interventions in the aging and disability fields

Keywords: Aging, Disability

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the research manager of 2 large federally funded center grants focusing on the health and function, community participation, employment, and outcomes measurement of people aging with a physical disability and people living with multiple sclerosis.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.