Beth Cardell

Effecting Healthy Lifestyle Changes in Overweight and Obese Young Adults With Intellectual Disability

We evaluated a 12-week recreation center-based healthy lifestyle intervention for 30 obese home-dwelling young adults (YA) with intellectual disabilities. Three cohorts participated: YA only, YA and parents, and parents only. The YA cohorts received a nutrition/exercise intervention; parents focused on modeling healthy lifestyle behaviors. Outcomes included YA blood, nutrition, anthropometric, and fitness measures at pre, post, and 3-month follow-up. Compared with wait-list controls, the YA-only cohort improved immediately postintervention in blood pressure (BP), weight, and balance (p < .05). At 3-month follow-up, no intervention was consistently superior; overall reductions in weight, BP, hip circumference, and exercise barriers were obtained (p < .05). Linear and curvilinear changes from baseline to 3 months after the intervention varied by outcome and participant. Participants with Down syndrome lost less weight.

Measurement Considerations for Achieving Equity in Research Inclusion for Transition-Aged Youth with Disabilities

Measuring health for youth with intellectual disabilities (ID) is important for tracking progress toward national health goals. Measures of biophysical and fitness indicators are important but difficult to obtain in youth with ID, particularly in community settings. This paper describes obstacles encountered and strategies used to measure outcomes in a community-based study. Proposed best practices include adaptations in procedures to maximize comprehension; preparation of the environment to provide privacy and predictability; and appropriately sized equipment to obtain accurate readings. Reliable and valid measures, specific to youth with ID, would improve promote research inclusion and reduce health disparities for this population.

Development of a novel positive psychology-based intervention for couples post-stroke

Objective: Stroke provides challenges for survivors and partner caregivers. Stroke survivors and caregivers are interconnected in their emotional health, including depression, a common stroke sequelae. The purpose of this study was to develop and test the feasibility of a dyadic positive psychology-based intervention (PPI) for couples coping poststroke. Design: Community-dwelling couples consisted of 1 partner who had a stroke ≥6 months ago and a cohabiting partner caregiver. One or both partner(s) had to report depressive symptoms. The PPI consisted of 1 brief face-to-face training session and an 8-week self-administered intervention in which participants were instructed to engage in at least 2 activities alone and 2 together each week. Two dyads were randomly assigned to a waitlist control to test feasibility of this process. Baseline, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up assessments and post-program feedback were obtained. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze sample characteristics, recruitment and retention rates, adherence, key pre- and postintervention outcomes, and satisfaction with the intervention. Results: Eleven of 20 couples responding to recruitment letters were enrolled in the study. Ten of 11 dyads completed the program. All participants engaged in activities for at least 6 of 8 weeks. Feedback data indicated participant satisfaction with the intervention, and key outcome measures demonstrated adequate variability. Conclusions: The self-administered dyadic PPI is feasible for implementation with couples poststroke. The PPI represents a first step in a novel dyadic approach in this population. Recruitment, enrollment and attrition rates, and feedback will be used to inform a larger randomized trial.

Reframing Health Promotion for People With Intellectual Disabilities

The World Health Organization calls for health promotion to expand beyond the health care system by considering social determinants of health, engaging multiple levels, targeting policy change, and including social action. This qualitative study embraces this holistic stance as a means to address the health disparities and inequities experienced by people with intellectual disabilities (ID) by supporting the development of interventions that consider components of social justice along with embracing this population’s potential and acknowledging influences of the context. A content analysis of the data is presented to illustrate how an occupational viewpoint can promote positive health and well-being of people with ID. The four gerunds of Wilcock’s Occupational Perspective on Health—doing, being, belonging, and becoming—are utilized and supported by the literature to offer actions that can be taken by health promotion professionals to address the health needs of people with ID.

Construct Validity of the Functionally Simulated Technology Task: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT This study explored the construct validity of the Functional Simulated Technology Task (FSTT), online bill-pay version. The FSTT was administered to matched groups: persons with cognitive impairment and persons with no known cognitive impairment, established through the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Results indicated significance for construct validity by discriminating between the two groups. Results also indicated a good to excellent positive relationship between scores on the MoCA and the FSTT score areas of Outcome, Quality, Process, and Independence. The findings support the use of the FSTT to measure executive function using a simulated online bill-pay task.