By Karen Dente, MD
NEW YORK, Jul 03 (Reuters Health) - Exercise offers many benefits, and a new
Web site from the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD)
helps the disabled to tailor activity programs to suit their special needs.
"If exercise could be put into a pill, it would be the single most
prescribed medication," Dr. James H. Rimmer, associate professor and director of
NCPAD, told Reuters Health.
"Anyone who leads a physically active lifestyle will tell you it's a
fundamental aspect to good health.... The same is true for people with
disabilities, but sadly, the physical activity profile of most persons with
disabilities is very low," Rimmer noted in a statement.
Rimmer is the driving force behind the new, free Web
site--http://www.ncpad.org--that assists disabled people in creating a
customized exercise plan. The site offers people with a wide range of
disabilities--including arthritis, stroke, depression, Alzheimer's disease or
spinal cord injuries--access to in-depth information based on their personal
needs.
The site has been specially designed to be useful for people with
disabilities. For example, the colors on the site display white letters on a
brown backdrop, designed to give readers with impaired vision better visibility
of the screen.
The Web site also has information aimed at health professionals who are
interested in encouraging a physically active lifestyle in their patients, and
tools for researchers and family members of the disabled.
NCPAD, based at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is funded through a
government grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With ties
to leading national researchers that serve as counselors on specific areas of
disability, it is also the nation's first center offering a PhD program in
disability studies.
