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Developmental Disabilities |
How can we improve the health of people with developmental disabilities?
People with developmental disabilities can live healthy lives.
Many federal and federally-funded programs help people learn to live well
with a disability. We list some of these efforts below.
Some of the links below go to pages on the CDC
Web site and others go to outside Web sites. Links to organizations
outside of CDC are included for information only. CDC has no control
over the information at these sites. The views and opinions of these
organizations are not necessarily those of CDC, the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS), or the U.S. Public Health Service
(PHS). |
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The National Center on Physical Activity and
Disability (NCPAD)
Physical activity is good for everyone. Being active helps people get
healthy and
stay healthy. The NCPAD Web site has information about physical activity for
people with disabilities. Read about getting started with an
exercise program, building playgrounds that all children can use, finding
summer camps, and adapting games and sports so that everyone can take part.
Search the NCPAD database to find information about a specific
disability or find out about fitness or recreation programs where you live.
NCPAD also has a monthly newsletter on physical activity that you can read
online or get by e-mail. [Go
to the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability Web site]
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The National Women's Health Information Center: Women
with DisAbilities
Twenty-six million American women live with disabilities (Source: U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services). The Office of Women's Health in
the Department of Health and Human Services has created a special section on
their National Women's Health Information Center Web site devoted to
information and resources for women with disabilities. The Web site covers
many topics, including access to health care and breast health services,
reproductive health, parenting, and special issues affecting older women, as
well as materials on different types of disabilities. [Go
to the Women with DisAbilities Web site]
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Closing the Gap: A National Blueprint to Improve the
Health of Persons with Mental Retardation
People with mental retardation grow up and grow older and need good health
and good health care, just like anyone else. But people with mental
retardation may face extra problems in staying healthy and in finding the
right health services when they are sick. In December 2001, the U.S. Surgeon
General held a conference on health disparities and mental retardation.
Closing the Gap: A National Blueprint to Improve the Health of Persons with
Mental Retardation is the official report from that conference. The report
identifies problems and proposes solutions. It sets goals in several areas
to improve the health of people with mental retardation, including health
promotion and community environments, knowledge and understanding, quality
of health care, training health care providers, health care financing, and
sources of health care. [View
the complete report and related materials on the Surgeon General's Health
Disparities and Mental Retardation Web site]
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CDC’s Disability and Health Program
The Disability and Health program at CDC funds states and universities to
study how people with disabilities can live healthy lives and to help people
do so. It also supports information centers on various aspects of disability
and health. The program’s Web site has information about making health care
and recreation settings accessible to people with disabilities. It also has
information about making it easier for people with disabilities to learn
about health issues on the Internet or at meetings. [Go to CDC’s Disability and Health Web
site]
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The Follow-Up Study of Children with Developmental
Disabilities
In the mid-1980s, CDC conducted the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental
Disabilities Study (MADDS), a study of cerebral palsy, epilepsy, hearing
loss, mental retardation, and vision impairment in 10-year-old children living in metropolitan Atlanta. A
comparison group of children who did not have any disabilities also took
part in the study. The Follow-Up Study of Children with Developmental
Disabilities contacted many of the original study participants years later,
when they were young adults. They were asked questions about their health,
living arrangements, socialization, employment, quality of life, use of
services, and independence. CDC has started analyzing the information
collected in the Follow-Up Study and will be looking at such issues as
obesity, pain, and use of health services among young adults with
disabilities as well as what
environmental factors (such as wheelchair ramps) make it easier for young
adults with disabilities to carry out their daily activities. Study
results will be posted on this Web site as they become available. [Read
more about MADDS]
[Return to top]
Date: October 29, 2004
Content source: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental
Disabilities
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