The Role of Sport Coaches in Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Athletes with Developmental Disabilities

Children and adults with disabilities are widely acknowledged to have poorer health and emotional wellbeing than their non-disabled peers, which is further compounded by less access to health services and health promoting activities. A relatively untried solution is to mobilise community initiatives such as sports to promote better health. Special Olympics (SO) is an international sports organisation present in over 200 countries and jurisdictions, engaging with just under four million athletes with intellectual disabilities annually. Scant research has been undertake into the perceptions of the sports coaches around incorporating health promotion within their sports training. Likewise, little attention has been given to identifying athlete’s understanding of what health means to them and the actions that would make them healthier. A qualitative, descriptive evaluation was undertaken with eight national SO programs involving over 60 coaches and nearly 50 athletes. Group interviews were conducted via Zoom and a thematic content analysis was made of their responses. In all countries, coaches and athletes agreed that the most common needs were healthy eating, healthy weight and exercise. Good mental wellbeing and sleeping well were also named. Ideas were sought from both sets of participants as to how coaches could assist their athletes to attain better health and the barriers they might face in so doing. Three main conclusions emerged. Athletes and coaches were aware of health deficits and knew ways of reducing them. Both appreciated the contribution that coaches could make, provided suitable resources were available to them. Engagement with families and available health and social care services was essential. Health oriented, sporting activities offer promise in improving the health and wellbeing of persons with developmental disabilities, particularly in less affluent countries with fewer health professionals and poorly developed primary care services.