Efficacy of a health care program aimed at improving physical activity among older adults with an intellectual disability.

The number of older adults with intellectual disabilities will increase during
the next decades but growing old in good health is not self evident for them.
Most participants have a sedentary lifestyle. This negatively influences both
this population*s capacity to carry out daily life activities independently and
their health and consequently their quality of life. The result of this is an
increasingly intensive demand for health care and a greater workload for
employees involved.
Among this population hardly any research has been carried out into increasing
physical activity or the effectiveness of programs aiming to increase or
maintain physical fitness and health.

Objectives:
1: Increasing the awareness of the older adults of the importance of physical
activities
2: Introducing the elderly to physical activities and familiarizing them with
the fun of it
3: Increasing physical activity, improving or maintaining motor fitness and the
capacity to carry out daily life activities which affects positively the
quality of life.

randomised controlled trial. follow up: 12 months

The program comprises three half days per week and consists of two subjects:
1. communication about the body, physical activity and health
2. physical activities such as gym, wii, walking, dancing to music, fitness

The program will be conducted by caregivers of the day-care settings supervised
by physical therapists during nine months, three times a week. Activities take
place at the day- care center or in a gym nearby. The activities* frequency,
duration and intensity will be increased step by step, following the
fitness-levels of the participants.
During one program-day, the participants will be physically active during half
an houre or 45 minutes in total.

Taking part in the program involves hardly any risks. Before the intervention
research starts, the client*s physician is asked to ascertain whether the
client is able to participate in the program in view of his medical status. The
program will consist of actitivities adapted to the interests and capacities of
the participants. Each participant can participate at his own level of fitness.
The program is built up slowly, step by step.
The program is carried out by well trained caregivers of the involved day-care
centers and supervised by professionals with an expertise in physical
activities for older adults with intellectual disabilities. The participants
will be stimulated to increase the duration and intensity of their physical
activities. This, however, takes place under expert supervision, step by step
and on a voluntary basis.
No maximum strain will be required from the participants. At the most all
physical activities will be carried out on a sub-maximal level. The
participant*s heart rate will be monitored at all times during the activities.
The participation of each individual in the program will be regularly evaluated
by a multi-disciplinary team. Employees from both domestic and day-care centers
are informed about the participant*s involvement in the research. If the
participant*s health should deteriorate this will be noted immediately. Whether
the program will be adapted or stopped altogether will be decided both by the
multidisciplinary team and after consulting the participant himself.