People with chronic illness and permanent injuries can substantially affect their health status by adopting health promoting behaviors. In this study, the Living Well with a Disability health promotion curriculum was delivered to 188 adults with mobility impairments in 7 states. This curriculum teaches participants to use health behavior change as a means to goal attainment of important life goals (e.g. going back to school). Participants were recruited from the case service records of community-based centers for independent living (CILs) as well as from the community at large. Once recruited, participants were randomly assigned to treatment in a staggered baseline experimental design that allowed collection of extended baseline data two months prior to intervention commencement. Results of repeated measures ANOVA on five waves of data collected immediately pre- to 12 months post-intervention indicated participants perceived limitation due to secondary conditions of their impairment decreased by 25% (F=5.46, p< .000) with post-hoc comparisons indicating maintenance of results for 12 months. Comparable results were not found over the extended baseline period (p > .10). Results are also presented for specific health behavior change that was collected with the Health Promoting Lifestyle Inventory II. Respondents reported statistically significant improvement in health behaviors (e.g physical activity and stress management) following the intervention. Lastly, effects of the intervention were also observed for overall life satisfaction ratings with mean ratings increasing by 7.3% (t=3.61, p < .000). See www.livingwellweb.com
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to: 1) Articulate a conceptual framework for delivering health education materials to people with chronic illness and permanent injuries. 2) Become familiar with useful measures for assessing outcomes in this population
Keywords: Health Education Strategies, Disability
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: University of Montana
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.