Emphasising Learning in Health Promotion Targeting Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) face disproportionately poor health profiles, underscoring the need for targeted and tailored health promotion strategies. Increasing health-related knowledge is essential for making lifestyle changes. However, difficulties associated with ID can affect the learning processes within health promotion, challenging professionals to apply various strategies to promote health. There is a lack of research exploring strategies perceived as meaningful and helpful in everyday health promotion informed by the lived experiences of individuals with ID and the insights of those who support them. The aim of this study is to explore strategies and organisational prerequisites for health promotion targeting individuals with ID by including the perspectives of individuals with ID, their significant others and professionals within healthcare, social services and educational systems.

The study was conducted in the southeast of Sweden. Data collection included eight workshops involving 30 participants in total. Individuals with ID (n = 14) participated in two constellations: one group attended a series of three workshops, whereas the other group attended a single workshop. Support persons, including significant others and professionals (n = 16), were divided into four separate groups, attending one workshop each. All workshops were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Three categories emerged during analysis: enabling informed decision-making for health promotion, promoting health and well-being through encouraging relations, and organisational factors influencing prerequisites for health promotion.

Learning about health among individuals with ID appears to constitute a vital component of healthy decision-making, and support persons play a central role in facilitating health-related learning in everyday contexts. Prominent strategies for health promotion targeting individuals with ID include enabling informed decision-making and fostering encouraging relationships. These strategies must be responsive to individual needs, grounded in everyday relationships and supported by organisational structures. Hindering organisational structures and limited health promotion knowledge among professionals may constrain these efforts. Strengthening professional capacity and organisational responsibility within health, social care and educational systems could enhance the conditions for equitable health promotion in this population.