Leisure-time physical activity and all-cause mortality among adults with intellectual disability: the National Health Interview Survey.
Ten minutes of self-chosen walking per day may cut early death risk in half for adults with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team pulled seven years of national survey data on the adults with intellectual disability.
They asked one simple question: how much leisure-time exercise do you do each week?
Then they counted who died from any cause to see if movement lengthened life.
What they found
People who walked, gardened, or danced for at least 10 minutes a day cut their risk of dying by almost half.
More minutes meant more protection, up to about an hour a day.
Light activity worked; no gym membership required.
How this fits with other research
Wu et al. (2010) ran a six-month fitness program in a group home and saw stronger hearts and lungs.
Their residents needed staff prompts and treadmills; Diaz (2020) shows plain daily walking is enough when people choose it.
Murthy et al. (2021) tracked the same national sample and found obesity and diabetes drive heart trouble.
Taken together, the story is clear: daily light movement lowers death risk, while weight and blood sugar still need watching.
Why it matters
You can add years to your adult clients’ lives without expensive equipment. Start by building a 10-minute walk into the day program or group home schedule. Pair it with weight checks and blood-sugar screens to hit both sides of the health equation.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have higher rates of morbidity and mortality compared with the general population, necessitating a need to identify modifiable targets for intervention to mitigate risk. While the benefits of leisure-time physical activity (PA) are well established in the general population; there is a dearth of evidence confirming its health benefits among adults with IDs. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between leisure-time PA and all-cause mortality among a population-based sample of adults with IDs. METHODS: A total of 413 adults with IDs from 17 waves (1997-2014) of the National Health Interview Survey, a U.S. nationally representative survey, were studied. Minutes per week of leisure-time PA was ascertained by self-report and classified as poor, intermediate or ideal levels of PA. RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 7.2 years, 60 participants died. In a multivariable-adjusted model, higher levels of leisure-time PA were dose-dependently associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (P-trend = 0.008). The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) for all-cause mortality comparing participants with intermediate and ideal versus poor levels of PA were 0.43 (0.18, 1.04) and 0.30 (0.10, 0.87), respectively. CONCLUSION: These findings show that leisure-time PA confers mortality benefit in adults with IDs and should be considered as a priority target for promoting health and longevity in this population.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2020 · doi:10.1111/jir.12695