142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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How to Use Social Media to Promote Physical Activity and Health Behaviors for Individuals with Disabilities

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 11:30 AM - 11:50 AM

Erin A Siebert , Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Jessica Hamm , Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Jill Pawlowski , Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Mara Nery-Hurwit , Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Roughly one in five Americans has a disability. These individuals experience poorer health and are at a higher risk for developing secondary conditions than the general population. The incidence of comorbidities, such as hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression occur in higher rates for individuals with disabilities (IWD). Physical activity (PA) has been shown to help manage these conditions by improving overall health, increasing an individuals’ ability to complete activities of daily living, which increases functional independence and improves quality of life. However, due to increased environmental and personal barriers, IWD engage in less PA than the general population. Compared to the general population IWD have less access to facilities that can accommodate their needs, may lack knowledge about PA, experience decreased social support needed to begin or maintain PA, and often have lower self-efficacy to participate in PA.

One-way to help increase IWD engagement in PA is through social media outlets. Social media campaigns have been effective tools to increase awareness, show the benefits of behavior change, and advocate for a position on health issues. Therefore, social media outlets may be a viable tool for disseminating information and promoting adapted PA behaviors for IWD. This presentation will demonstrated how to utilize various social media outlets to increase awareness of common barriers experienced by IWD, spread information about adapted PA programs, begin a dialogue about the importance of PA for IWD, adapt physical activity, and promote PA behaviors.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention
Communication and informatics

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate how to use the basic skills of social media as an effective means of communication to promote adapted physical activity and health behaviors. Formulate and disseminate information about how to adapt physical activity via various social media outlets. Design engaging and stimulating media content to promote adapted physical activity participation.

Keyword(s): Disabilities, Pharmacists

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I helped to design the materials and content for this presentation and have successfully used social media to promote adapted physical activity participation for individuals with disabilities.
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.

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