A WALKING programme aimed at getting people with learning disabilities fit has had no real impact because their carers cannot find the time to walk with them because of social care budget cuts.
Glasgow University researchers found that those who took part in the £225,000 Scottish Government-funded Walk Well project were not walking more or sitting less.
Now they are looking into more intensive or home-based programmes for the future.
Dr Craig Melville, the university’s senior lecturer in learning disabilities psychiatry at the Institute of Health and Wellbeing, said the findings had “important implications on understanding intervention-generated inequalities in socially disadvantaged groups”.
Around two per cent of adults have learning disabilities. Only five per cent meet public health recommendations for physical activity, compared to 64 per cent of adults in the Scottish Health Survey, and around 50 per cent have obesity problems compared to 25 per centof all adults.
The first study of its kind into the programme describes how a team of researchers adapted a Walk Well project for adults with learning disabilities in a bid to increase their levels of physical activity and to reduce the time they spent sitting.
Walk Well consisted of three face-to-face physical activity consultations incorporating behaviour change techniques, written resources for participants and carers, and an individualised, structured walking programme.
The primary outcome measured with accelerometers was any change in the average number of steps taken over a 12-week period.
Other outcomes measured included proportion of time spent sitting and in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, changes to body mass index and changes to feelings of well-being.
Out of 102 participants, 54 took part in the Walk Well programme and 48 were allocated to a waiting-list control group.
A majority of participants lived in the most deprived neighbourhoods of Scotland and both groups took fewer than 5,000 steps per day. 59 per cent had a BMI in the obesity range.
The researchers found there was no significant effect of Walk Well on their steps per day at 12 weeks. Neither did it make any difference to the sedentary outcomes attributable to taking part in the Walk Well programme.
Dr Melville said: “The additional barriers to physical activity experienced by adults with intellectual disabilities mean that decision-making and actions are most often expressed in the context of existing personal relationships.
“However, many participants and carers reported difficulties finding time to walk together.
“Cuts in social care budgets have disproportionately impacted on disabled people and even when social care support is available, it is often not funded at a level that allows paid carers to support adults with intellectual disabilities to be physically active.
“Therefore, the lack of effect in the Walk Well trial may be due to a lack of availability of social support to make walking accessible, facilitate community participation and moderate social disadvantages.”
He suggested social enterprises, volunteer organisations and buddy programmes might have a role in supporting adults with intellectual disabilities to be more active.
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