Effects of Physical Exercise on Women with Disabilities in South Korea: A Meta-Analysis

Yucheon Kim,Songyi Lee

doi:10.3390/ijerph182312791

Abstract

This study is the first to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the effects of physical exercise on South Korean women with disabilities using the data of previous studies. This study performed a meta-analysis of the effect sizes of exercise programs for women with disabilities using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.0 and a total of 16 papers with 154 participants. The largest effect sizes were found for changes in muscle strength (d = 2.407) for treatment effects, horseback riding (d = 3.080) for exercise type, 45–50 min (d = 3.080) for duration of a single exercise session, three times (d = 0.963) for frequency of exercise per week, 15 weeks (d = 1.974) for period of exercise and 45 times (d = 1.974) for total number of sessions. The results of this meta-analysis showed that exercise programs suitable for the individual-level characteristics of disabled individuals can and should be developed and implemented.

Highlights

Public Health 2021, 18, 12791. https://People living with disabilities (PWDs) are regarded as the largest minority in the world, and they need to be included in public health programs [1]
There were limitations in comparing the effects of exercise according to gender, as studies on PWDs were conducted without distinguishing between men and women
This study investigated the effects of exercise among South Korean female PWDs and included no comparison with studies on male PWDs

Summary

Introduction

People living with disabilities (PWDs) are regarded as the largest minority in the world, and they need to be included in public health programs [1]. Women living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India or Indonesia face additional barriers, including low decision-making power, gender-based violence (GBV) and lack of economic independence [2,3,4]. South Korea has been maintaining very rapid economic growth, and it is one of the world’s high-income countries. It still lags behind in terms of the welfare of the disabled [5]. In South Korean society, the quality of life of PWDs is poorer than that of non-disabled persons in many aspects, and that of female PWDs is low [6,7]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion