Document Type

Research Report

Publisher

University of Montana Rural Institute

Publication Date

6-2001

Disciplines

Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Public Health

Abstract

Behavior change can improve health status for many adults. Further, for adults with chronic illness and permanent injuries, a growing body of literature identifies health promotion as both effective in improving health and cost-effective compared to treatment alternatives. Yet third-party payers (Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance) typically do not reimburse health promotion interventions. This is a problem for many individuals with disabilities who have significant health care costs and cannot pay for health promotion programs. For more than a decade, the Office on Disability and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has supported research culminating in the Living Well with a Disability health promotion program for people with disabilities. This research has progressed from an initial focus on behavioral epidemiology and the risk factors for secondary conditions experienced by people with physical impairments to development, implementation and evaluation of the Living Well intervention. The Living Well workshop differs from many medically-based health promotion interventions because improved health is an objective to a goal, rather than the goal itself. Living Well links health with function; and participants’ goal-setting and problem-solving activities drive their health behavior changes.

Keywords

health and wellness, health promotion, health care, independent living, Living Well, rural, disability

Rights

© 2001 RTC:Rural.

Granting Agency

Centers for Disease Control

Acknowledgement

This research is supported by a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control (R04/CCR814162).

Project Number

R04/CCR814162

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