What this means
Adults in this program had lower rates of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure than national benchmarks. The study looked back at records and cannot prove the program caused the difference.
Plain-English summary written by an AI model from the abstract. The original is below.
- Who it was tested in
- 295 adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities at one residential care center
- Kind of research
- A study
The science
- Original title
- Applying Lifestyle Medicine to Improve Health Outcomes in People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
- Authors
- Hamlin T, Anderson C, Lantz JF et al.
- Journal
- American journal of lifestyle medicine
- Published
- Oct 13, 2026
- Study type
- Study
- PMID
- 42865752 ↗
Abstract
Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and autism spectrum disorder experience disproportionately high rates of chronic disease, often exacerbated by systemic care barriers. Despite these concerns, interventions for this population rarely target overall health and wellness and often rely on practices that can contribute to poor health outcomes. This retrospective review includes data collected at The Center for Discovery, a residential care program for people with severe and complex disabilities. This analysis evaluates health outcomes among 295 adults with I/DD, including autism, who received a comprehensive lifestyle medicine intervention. Prevalence rates of chronic conditions among those receiving the intervention were compared to national and New York State disability benchmarks. Results suggest an association with substantially lower prevalence of key conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, with a median risk ratio of 0.325 (range: 0.23-0.76) compared to U.S. population benchmarks. These findings suggest that participation in an integrated lifestyle medicine model, SynergE6® Healthspan Model, could be associated with lower chronic disease prevalence among adults with I/DD. Because this was a retrospective observational study using external benchmark comparisons, prospective controlled studies are needed to determine whether these associations are causal.
Hamlin T, Anderson C, Lantz JF et al. Applying Lifestyle Medicine to Improve Health Outcomes in People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. American journal of lifestyle medicine. 2026. doi:10.1177/15598276261486805. PMID: 42865752. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42865752/