Resources
No.44
May 2005
 
   

The National Center on Physical Activity and Disability: Impacting Lives Positively with Physical Activity
Jennifer Gray & William J. Schiller, USA


Research shows that persons who engage in regular physical activity have a lower risk of some chronic conditions (i.e., type 2 diabetes, stroke, coronary heart disease) and retain physical independence throughout life. Unfortunately, people with disabilities who might benefit most from the effects of physical activity are often sedentary, and have poorer health status compared to the population at large (Heath & Fentem, 1997; National Council on Disability, 1992; Rimmer & Braddock, 1997; Rimmer, 1999, 2002; Rimmer et al, 2001; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Prolonged physical inactivity can cause a downward health and functioning spiral, and sedentary behavior over time can make it more difficult to engage in physical activities that could promote health. It can also have a negative effect on performing self-care activities and other activities of daily living. Moreover, at a societal level, this can contribute to higher health care costs and a greater strain on the national health care budget (Rice & Trupin, 1996).
The National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD) (www.ncpad.org) was created in 1999 as a national health promotion initiative to gather, synthesize, organize, disseminate, and produce information and resources on physical activity and disability. People with disabilities are encouraged to take charge of their physical fitness and health. NCPAD’s information resources are geared to consumers, caregivers, practitioners, and researchers, and it serves to network these constituencies in order to produce new information on physical activity and disability.
Though the Surgeon General and other federal agencies recommend 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise to achieve health benefits, NCPAD suggests that any increase in regular physical activity contributes to better overall health, i.e., reducing secondary conditions, and quality of life.

The NCPAD Dissemination Model:
NCPAD effectively disseminates its information and resources through the following methods:
  1. Consumer level: persons with disabilities are empowered to pursue the health benefits of daily physical activity by utilizing information on how to exercise and engage in recreation. For example, consumers can call (800-900-8086) or e-mail (ncpad@uic.edu) NCPAD Information Specialists with requests on how to exercise with a specific disability, on available adaptive equipment, the location of accessible fitness programs in their areas, as well as a range of other questions. In turn, Information Specialists respond to such questions with a packet of valuable information geared to the consumer’s disability. Consumers often contribute to writing pieces for the “Your Writes” area of the NCPAD Web site (http://www.ncpad.org/yourwrites), on the experiences of people with disabilities becoming more physically active. Consumers can also participate in the NCPAD online threaded discussion groups on topics such as programs for children, equipment adaptations, general discussion, and more (http://www.ncpad.org/forums/). Thus, all these forums contribute to educating and empowering the consumer to become more active and healthier.
  2. Practitioner level: NCPAD provides information to practitioners who work with people with disabilities, so that their health prescription programs can be more effective for their clients. Practitioners write factsheets and research-based articles for NCPAD on exercising with these conditions. A personal trainers database is currently being developed that would provide information about personal fitness professionals across the U.S. who have experience working with people with disabilities and other health conditions. Care coordinators can utilize NCPAD’s Information Specialists and resources to include a wellness component to services they are coordinating for their clients with disabilities. For example, care coordinators might use NCPAD’s programs database to locate a wheelchair-accessible fitness center, consult an Information Specialist about adapted equipment for a specific disability, or request information on how someone with a chronic condition, i.e., diabetes, can exercise safely.
  3. Policy and Program level: NCPAD can provide information for policy makers, governmental agencies, and industry leaders developing policies, guidelines, and programs promoting physical activity for persons with disabilities. NCPAD’s monthly e-mail newsletter (http://www.ncpad.org/newsletter/) serves as a forum to provide current information in the physical activity-disability arena, and topics include research and policy updates. NCPAD conducts outreach to specific professional groups that can impact their affiliated programs and populations with information on physical activity and disability. NCPAD also maintains an extensive database on physical activity programs across the U.S. for people with disabilities.
  4. Research level: NCPAD and its related projects provide assessment instruments and resources on evaluating the physical activity level of persons with disabilities, and accessibility for people with disabilities to fitness and recreation programs and facilities. The PADS (Physical Activity Disability Survey) instrument, for example, is designed to assess low-level physical activity among persons with physical disabilities and chronic health conditions (http://www.aimfree.org/products.html). A complementary instrument to the PADS is the Barriers to Physical Activity and Disability Survey, (B-PADS) which consists of 29 true/false items on various barriers to physical activity encountered by persons with disabilities. These include internal barriers (e.g., lack of motivation, fear of leaving home, perception of exercise as difficult or boring) as well as external barriers (e.g., lack of transportation, costs, availability of fitness and recreation facilities).
One of NCPAD’s related projects, AIMFREE (Accessibility Instruments Measuring Fitness and Recreation Environments), is the product of a three-year study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The AIMFREE instrument measures the accessibility of fitness centers, swimming pools, parks and trails. It can be used by both people with mobility limitations and by professionals, such as fitness and recreation center owners and staff (http://www.aimfree.org/overview.html).

Technology Focus:
NCPAD’s Web site serves as the key repository for its information, and NCPAD utilizes new technologies as they become available. Examples of this include NCPAD’s new Web site layout (www.ncpad.org), video clips (http://www.ncpad.org/videos/), and customized spinal cord injury videos (http://www.ncpad.org/videos/fact_sheet.php?sheet=271). Moreover, NCPAD plans to use information technology to provide more personalized and interactive services for people with disabilities so that outreach efforts can promote higher rates of participation in physical activity. This could include personalized goal setting and recording of physical activity levels to overcome many current barriers to participation in, and adherence to, healthful exercise programs.

Future Plans:
NCPAD plans to develop a section of its Web site that will allow individuals to create personal physical activity goals and a feedback system to monitor their progress. Visitors will be given the option of using the PADS to determine a current level of physical activity. Once baseline values are obtained, the application will help guide them toward developing realistic goals with an appropriate timeframe for achieving those goals. The system will allow the user to create daily, weekly, and monthly targets of physical activity. Progress can be viewed through visual graphic presentation displays. All NCPAD resources, including telephone and e-mail contact with Information Specialists, will be available to users to make such progress.
NCPAD also intends on developing a portion of its Web site for children with disabilities. This will include expanded information on recreation and exercise for parents, therapists, teachers, etc., and fun games and activities for children.
NCPAD always seeks to reach more underserved populations, i.e., those who don’t have the skills or resources to use computers and the Internet. These individuals can currently reach NCPAD through its toll-free telephone line and receive mailed materials. Additional public service announcements about NCPAD, the development of more NCPAD exercise videos for a wide range of disability conditions, and perhaps an airing of these videos on a public television station would help outreach to these populations. Moreover, NCPAD hopes to translate its Web site resources into Spanish (and perhaps other languages), and employ staff who speak these languages, in order to avail its services to persons of other cultures and ethnic groups.

Lessons Learned:
Though NCPAD was initially developed to be purely an information clearinghouse, it has grown into an expansive network of professionals and consumers as a conduit for the development of new information pieces on physical activity and disability, including fitness, recreation, sport, adaptive equipment, and more. Furthermore, the development of new technologies continually provides NCPAD with other avenues for assisting people with disabilities to engage in exercise and recreation.


For further information contact
Jennifer Gray,
MA Information Specialist
NCPAD
312-355-4544
www.ncpad.org



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