New study to assess how adults with learning disabilities can lead healthier lives
Published: 28 June 2018
IHW colleagues and collaborators have published a protocol for a new study which will look at the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of lifestyle modification interventions for adults with learning disabilities
IHW colleagues and collaborators have published a protocol for a new study which will look at the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of lifestyle modification interventions for adults with learning disabilities.
Adults with learning disabilities are more likely to take part in unhealthy behaviours such as smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise and drinking alcohol. Thus, it is important to establish how lifestyle modification interventions work, for whom they work and in what context.
The study is a mixed-methods systematic review employing methods such network meta-analysis and component network meta-analysis to dismantle effective components within the interventions and a realist synthesis to complement and explain the findings. A logic model will be used to map out the underpinning pathway and causal mechanism of how complex lifestyle modification interventions work.
IHW researchers and colleagues from University College London (UCL) and Leeds Beckett University will collaborate with patient representative group People First (Scotland), the national disabled people's organisation of adults with a learning disability. It is hoped that the study will provide evidence for future lifestyle modification interventions which will help people with learning disabilities live happier, healthier, and longer lives.
University of Glasgow authors are: Dikshyanta Rana, Evi Germeni, Olivia Wu, Sophie Westrop, Leanne Harris, Arlene McGarty and Craig Melville
First published: 28 June 2018