| PURPOSE:Physical and psychological health are both important factors for adults with intellectual disabilities affecting their social integration,and also necessary conditions to ensure their normal life.People with intellectual disabilities could not compete with people without that issue in the aspect of muscle strength,cardiopulmonary function and the ability of balance.Their body usually degenerate faster than health people.Some of them also have the problem of obesity accompanied by cardiovascular diseases.Adults with intellectual disabilities usually do simple handwork in the Sunshine Disabled Homes or Sunshine Disabled Workshops.Previous researches are often seen in the field of studying what influence one single sport event could bring to the health of people with intellectual disabilities;however,comparative studies on how different kinds of sport could affect that population are rarely seen.Therefore,this study,targeted on adults with mild intellectual disabilities in Sunshine Disabled Homes and Sunshine Disabled Workshops,explored the intervention of four representative sport events,namely track and field,Tai Chi,basketball and Dragon Dance,on the physical and mental health of people with mild mental disabilities,with the purpose of providing reference for the rehabilitative exercise at Sunshine Disabled Home and Sunshine Disabled Workshop,as well as theoretical support for the rehabilitation of people with mild intellectual disabilities.METHOD:In this study,the author visited the Sunshine Disabled Home of Wujiaochang Neighborhood,and the Sunshine Disabled Workshop of Yinhang Neighborhood in Yangpu District,and selected appropriate testers through the communication with the leading officials.The testers were divided into 4 groups with14 persons of each,and conducted the exercise of track and field,Tai Chi,Dragon Dance and basketball respectively.During the research,the methods of literature,experiment,interviews and mathematical statistics are mainly adopted in this study.Besides,the upper and lower limbs muscle strength,cardiopulmonary function,static and dynamic balance and body flexibility of the participants were measured two times respectively before and after the intervention by means of testing grip strength,sit ups,standing long jump,vital capacity,Timed “Up and Go",and seat body flexion.Besides,the social adaptation ability of the participants was measured three times on the base of Exercise Efficacy Evaluation Scale for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities.In addition,mathematical statistics were adopted in the analysis.RESULTS:(1)67.8% and 3.6% of the participants are respectively over or below people's normal range of body weight.They were observed to have low level of daily physical activity and had sedentary problems.The decreases of BMI and body fat rate of those people were highly significant after the intervention of exercising track and field,Dragon Dance and basketball,and significant after the intervention of exercising Tai Chi.After the intervention the BMI and body fat rate of the participants from the four groups had no remarkable difference.(2)The drops of the heart rate,vital capacity,systolic pressure of the participants were remarkably significant resulting from the intervention of track and field,basketball and Dragon Dance;however,the diastolic pressure of the participants did not see notable variation tendency.The decreases of heart rate and vital capacity were not significant in Tai Chi group neither.The track and field group and Dragon Dance group demonstrated more observable decrease tendencies than the Tai Chi group after the intervention;but the other groups saw no significant variations of heart rate.(3)After the intervention,the track and field group showed significant better performance in standing long jump;Tai Chi group was observed to have little change in the index concerning muscle force.The testers' grip strength,standing long jump and sit ups showed obvious upward trends as a result of the intervention of Dragon Dance.By comparison,the testers only performed markedly better in standing long jump after the intervention of playing basketball.Moreover,in the aspect of standing long jump,Tai Chi group sored significantly lower than track and field group and basketball group.(4)In the aspect of the Flamingo left foot landing test and the timed up and go test,the track and field group performed evidently better after the intervention.For Tai Chi group,the participants' performance in finishing the timed up and go test demonstrated a significant improvement,and the time of completing the foot-loading of the participants in the Flamingo Test decreased yet not significantly.However,the Dragon Dance group and basketball group showed remarkable improvement on dynamic and static balance test and Flamingo Test after the intervention.The basketball group performed notably better in the timed up and go test than the other three groups.As for the seating body forward flexion test,only Tai Chi group was observed to have a significant improving tendency after the intervention;but no significant difference was observed between the four groups.(5)The results of the three times' evaluation on participants' social adaptation ability are as follows: firstly,the track and field group and Tai Chi group achieved higher but not significant scores in the “communication” section after the intervention while Dragon Dance group and basketball group performed notably better in that section after the intervention.Secondly,for the “social skills” section,testers from the track and field group got marked up-warding higher scores in "spontaneously organizing activities" and "getting well along with peers";however,the Tai Chi group merely performed significantly better in the aspect of “getting well along with peers” after the intervention;the Dragon Dance group and basketball group made remarkable improvement in the whole section.Last but not least,for the “sense of responsibility” section,participants in three groups including the track and field,Dragon Dance and basketball groups scored evidently higher in the whole section;the Tai Chi group scored higher but not significantly after the intervention.CONCLUSIONS:(1)6 months' intervention demonstrates positive influence on the heart and lung function and body composition for the participants after the intervention of exercising track and field,Tai Chi,Dragon Dance or basketball;The influence of track and field,Dragon Dance and basketball are relatively more significant compared with that of Tai Chi.To be more specific,the track and field and basketball exercises have been shown to have larger impact on peoples' lower limb muscle strength;the Dragon Dance exercise is shown to have more comprehensive effects on people's muscle strength;the obvious influence of exercising Tai Chi in increasing muscle strength has not been detected.Besides,track and field,Dragon Dance and basketball interventions have been observed to have inspiring effects on people's dynamic and static balance,but less impact on body flexibility;exercising Tai Chi has demonstrated to have a larger impact on body's dynamic balance and positive affects on people's body flexibility,but little influence on people's static balance.(2)The two team events,Dragon Dance and Basketball,have more significant effects on peoples' social adaptation than the events of track and field and Tai Chi. |
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