Physical activity levels in older adults with intellectual disabilities are extremely low.
Only 17 % of adults with ID over 50 walk 10,000 steps a day, so build low-impact, step-based programs now.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers clipped pedometers on adults with intellectual disabilities who were 50 or older. They wanted to see how many daily steps the group took.
The study was cross-sectional. It gave a snapshot, not a before-and-after test.
What they found
Only 17 out of every 100 adults hit the 10,000-step goal. The rest were sedentary.
The data show a clear need for movement programs tailored to older adults with ID.
How this fits with other research
Jones et al. (1998) interviewed the same age group and found staff-controlled, passive leisure. The new step counts confirm those stories with hard numbers.
Matson et al. (2013) extends the finding. After seeing the low activity, they trained community mentors. Three older women then joined mainstream retiree groups and boosted their own activity, proving the cycle can be broken.
Lin et al. (2011) surveyed managers who already believed people with ID age earlier, yet they had no services ready. The pedometer results give those managers evidence to ask for funds now.
Vakil et al. (2012) adds biology: adults with ID carry more inflammation markers, a sign of early aging. Pair that with the low step counts and you see both body and behavior aging faster.
Why it matters
You now have numbers to show funders why a walking club or dance class is medical, not optional. Start with 5-minute walks tied to preferred music or snacks, then add steps each week. Track with cheap pedometers and share the weekly totals with the team so everyone sees progress.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study measures physical activity levels in a representative population-based sample of older adults (aged ≥ 50 years) with intellectual disabilities. For this, the steps/day of all 1050 participants of the Healthy Ageing and Intellectual Disabilities study (HA-ID; a study conducted among three Dutch healthcare providers in 2009-2010), were measured with a pedometer. Largely due to physical limitations (n = 103), walking speed <3.2 km/h (n = 252), limited understanding or non-cooperation (n = 233), only 257 of the group were able to participate in valid measurements with pedometers. Of these 257 participants, only 16.7% (95% CI 12.2-21.3) complied with the guideline of 10,000 steps/day, 36.2% (95% CI 30.3-42.1) took 7500 steps/day or more, and 39% (95% CI 32.6-44.5) was sedentary (< 5000 steps/day). Because the measured sample was the more functionally able part of the total sample, this result is likely to be a considerable overestimation of the actual physical activity levels in this population. This realistic study shows that physical activity levels are extremely low in adults aged 50 years and over with intellectual disabilities. Focus on lifetime promotion of physical activity in this specific, but rapidly growing population, is recommended.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2012 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.10.011