Perceived Barriers of Physical Activity Participation in Individuals with Intellectual Disability—A Systematic Review

Abstract

Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) tend to have a sedentary lifestyle, with low physical fitness and an increased risk of chronic diseases. One reason for the prevalence of a sedentary lifestyle is the existence of barriers to participation in physical activity (PA). The purpose of this systematic review is to update knowledge about the perceived barriers of PA participation in individuals with ID. Electronic searches were carried out in the PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science databases, from September 2020 to May 2021, and included articles published between January 2016 and May 2021. The terms used were: “mental retardation”, “intellectual disability”, “intellectual disabilities”, “physical activity”, “motor activity”, “barriers”, “obstacles”, “embarrassment” and “constraint”, in combination with the Boolean operators “AND” or “OR”. After the methodological process, five studies were included for analysis. These studies revealed the existence of several perceived barriers to regular PA participation, which were grouped into five main groups: personal (6 topics), family (4 topics), social (13 topics), financial (1 topic) and environmental (1 topic). The knowledge and identification of participation barriers can be of extreme importance both to institutions and professionals aiming to enhance the participation of individuals with ID in regular PA programs.

Analysis of the Barriers and Motives for Practicing Physical Activity and Sport for People with a Disability: Differences According to Gender and Type of Disability

“…In this way, action can be taken to adjust the provision of PA to their motivations and take action to minimise the barriers they perceive. Possibly, due to the importance of these results, previous studies have analysed the motives for and barriers to the practice of PA both in people with a disability who are not habitual practitioners of PA or sport [25][26][27] and in sportspeople or habitual practitioners of PA with a disability in different modalities, at different competitive levels and with different impairments [28][29][30][31][32][33]. Moreover, it has been shown that there are significant differences in the perception of barriers between different disabilities.…”

Gold Medals, Silver Medals, Bronze Medals, and Total Medals: An Analysis of Summer Paralympic Games from 1992 to 2016

“…Likewise, several factors may be contributing to the decrease in the number of barriers to the practice of physical activity [ 45 ] and the increase in the number of people enrolled in this practice [ 46 ], which positively impacts the number of people participating in the PG and performance indicators. Although the interest in the psychological skills of athletes started in the 1980s [ 47 ], the development of psychological skills training programs in Paralympic sports is recent [ 48 , 49 , 50 ].…”

Commentary on “Development of LDPAQ: learning disability physical activity questionnaire”

“…Physical activity is a complex occupation involving integration between psychological, social, cultural, environmental and physical factors, all of which need to be fully understood to support safe and sustained client engagement (Biddle et al , 2015). When working with people with intellectual disabilities with high support needs, this complexity is further increased, highlighting the need for additional education and training of allied health and fitness professionals working with this population (Bodde and Seo, 2009; Bossink et al , 2017; Cocks et al , 2018; Jacinto et al , 2021).…”

“…For allied health and fitness professionals, it is important to understand how the disability and health systems interconnect, key points of transition and how to work with interdisciplinary teams whilst working within a trauma informed framework. For example, education for certificate trained fitness professionals should involve guidance on how to collaboratively work with allied health professionals (occupational therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, exercise physiologists) to ensure that their service is delivered in a way that is considerate of the individual’s physical and emotional safety (Jacinto et al , 2021).…”

“…Additionally, it is important that allied health and fitness professionals develop the knowledge to deliver an adapted and inclusive service, considering both the physical environment (environmental modifications and equipment) and the social environment (delivery of adapted and inclusive programmes and activities that are meaningful to the individual) (Jacinto et al , 2021). Further, education on how to communicate these modifications to both the client and those supporting the individual is required to ensure that increased engagement in physical activity participation can be safely and sustainably transferred into the individual’s everyday life (Jacinto et al , 2021).…”