Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a skill-based lifestyle intervention for enhancing cooking abilities and physical fitness in young adults with intellectual disabilities
A 12-week cooking-plus-exercise group lifted both kitchen independence and leg strength in young adults with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Danon et al. (2025) ran a 12-week group program called Chef-ID.
Each session paired hands-on cooking lessons with simple strength exercises.
Young adults with intellectual disabilities joined community kitchens twice a week.
Staff used modeling, practice, and praise to build both food skills and fitness.
What they found
After 12 weeks most participants could cook simple meals on their own.
They also got stronger legs and lost some weight.
People kept coming: 95 out of every 100 stayed until the end.
How this fits with other research
Pett et al. (2013) tried a 12-week exercise-only club for the same age group.
That study saw small gains that faded after three months.
Chef-ID adds cooking lessons and keeps the exercise, so skills may stick better.
Laposa et al. (2017) proved group fitness works for older adults with ID.
Danon borrows that fitness plan and drops the age range to young adults.
Burke et al. (2024) taught one neurodivergent young adult to cook using an ABA plan.
Chef-ID shows the same skill can be taught to a whole group at once.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with ID, you now have a ready-made 12-week outline.
Run small cooking crews, add squats or walks, and track who can fix a meal alone.
The high stay-rate suggests families like the combo, so billing hours may be easier.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) often experience poorer diet quality and lower physical fitness levels as they transition from adolescence to adulthood. The purpose of this study was to assess the initial feasibility and efficacy of Chef-ID, a 12-week intervention designed to improve cooking skills and physical function in young adults with ID. Young adults with ID attended weekly group sessions which provided hands-on cooking skills, nutrition education, and exercise. Participants were also asked to attend monthly, virtual, goal setting sessions. Feasibility outcomes included attendance, retention, and safety. Preliminary efficacy outcomes included cooking skills, lower body muscle strength, grip strength, aerobic capacity, and body weight. Paired t-tests were used to assess the differences in cooking skills, strength measures, aerobic capacity, and weight after the 12-week intervention. Study retention was 95 %, attendance exceeded 85 % for all sessions, and no serious adverse events were reported. The number of cooking skills participants could do independently (p = 0.005), the number of cooking skills requiring only a verbal prompt (p = 0.01) and lower body strength (p = 0.004) significantly improved across the 12-week intervention. The number of cooking skills participants had no exposure to (p = 0.01) and weight (p = 0.036) significantly decreased across the intervention. No significant changes were observed for upper body strength or aerobic capacity. The Chef-ID intervention was feasible with desirable initial effects on cooking skill independence, exposure to cooking skills, lower body strength, and weight. The Chef-ID intervention holds promise in enhancing cooking skills and physical function among young adults with ID. Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT05385016.
Disability and health journal, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.dhjo.2024.101767