Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle

Abstract

In this thesis, the effectiveness of the Active Lifestyle and Sports participation intervention was evaluated among youth with Cerebral Palsy (CP). This intervention consisted of ADL counselling, fitness training and sports counselling. It was hypothesised that this lifestyle intervention would have added value for improving physical behaviour and physical fitness compared to regular therapy. We found that persons with CP had significantly lower levels of physical fitness and physical activity compared to a reference sample. These reduced levels were accompanied by increased levels of fatigue. The longitudinal analyses showed that the lifestyle intervention had favourable effects on self-reported physical activity and various components of physical fitness. Furthermore, fatigue severity was reduced after following the intervention. No effects for the intervention were found on objectively measured physical activity, quality of life and socila participation. Exploratory results of the cost-utility analysis showed that offering a lifestyle intervention for CP-populations might be cost-effective or cost-saving as compared to offering no intervention to improve physical behaviour and fitness.