Impact of the HealthMatters Train-the-Trainer Program on the Health and Health Behaviors of Staff Supporting Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

The health status and health behaviors among support staff providing daily support for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD-SS) in community-based organizations (CBOs) have not been systematically studied. This study examined the health impact of IDD-SS workers who participated in a HealthMatters Program: Train-the-Trainer Certified Instructor Workshop followed by implementing a 12-week HealthMatters Program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) that they care for as part of their employment. A total of 48 IDD-SS were enrolled into either an intervention (n = 28) or control group (n = 20). IDD-SS in the intervention group received an 8-hour HealthMatters Program: Train-the-Trainer Workshop immediately prior to teaching a 12-week HealthMatters Program for people with IDD. Assessments were conducted with IDD-SS before and after completing the 12-week HealthMatters Program to evaluate whether IDD-SS experienced any benefit of the training and teaching the program on their own health and health behaviors. Relative to the control group, the IDD-SS in the intervention group showed significant improvements in social/environmental supports for nutrition (F = 4.92, p =.032), exercise outcome expectations (F = 6.58, p =.014), nutrition outcome expectations (F = 8.87, p =.005), fruit and vegetable intake (F = 13.62, p =.001), knowledge of fruit and vegetable intake recommendations (F = 11.25, p =.002), and stages of change for eating fruits and vegetables (F = 6.86, p =.012). Results demonstrated that IDD-SS benefited from the health education programming. Findings support the need to develop programs and organizational policies for health promotion activities for direct care staff.