The present review was to describe some of the affects muscular fitness, cardio-respiratory fitness, and neural fitness in persons with disabilities. As to the muscular fitness, peak torque of elbow extension in upper-limb disabled was highly correlated with the extent of an individual's participation in sports and fitness programs. There was a good correlation between daily physical activity and oxygen intake (cardio-respiratory fitness) in the wheelchair users and in the visually impaired children. Regarding the neural fitness, children with mental age below 6 were characterized by wide variability as well as slowness in whole body reaction time. The results of this review suggest that there is evidence supporting the view that physical activity improves the physical fitness and motor performance in persons with disabilities.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the characteristics of the nutritional status in Japanese wheelchair basketball players. Forty wheelchair basketball players (WB group, 32 males and 8 females) responded to questionnaires about food intake during training and competition including the Food Frequency Questionnaire based on Food Groups. The nutritional status in the WB group was compared to that in 40 able-bodied subjects (AB group, 22 males and 18 females), whose age, height and time of physical activity were matched for those in the WB group. In addition, body mass index (BMI) and subcutaneous fat thickness were measured in the WB group. The male WB group showed a significantly lower intake of grain, vegetable, and fruit groups and higher intake of confectioneries than the AB group, resulting in a shortage of vitamin C and B6 and dietary fiber. Interestingly, a significantly negative correlation was found between the intake of vegetables and BMI in the male WB group. These results suggest that the male WB group have undesirable dietary habits and have need to care nutritional consideration of special physical training and competition requirements.

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The present study investigated to determine whether motor learning of ball skills in young children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) differently from young children without DCD. There were 18 participants between the age of 4 and 6 years; 9 young children with DCD, and 9 young children without DCD. The young children with DCD were identified by teacher rating and by the assessment tool (MABC). All participants performed two-handed rolling a ball to the center of goal from 3m, 6 trials for each of two different settings, for a total of 12 trials. Immediately after practice trials, all participants performed 3 trials to test for transfer. These data showed that DCD groups made their performance that were both more inaccurate and much more variable than controls. Results suggested that although practice was effective a bit for young children with DCD to improve their performance, DCD groups were difficult to adapt themselves to situation of novel tasks.

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The purpose of the present study is to determine whether nonsupervised sports rehabilitation is applicable to patients with chronic heart disease. Fifteen patients who had participated in supervised sports rehabilitation for several years volunteered to participate in a new nonsupervised sports rehabilitation program. This program continued for 6 weeks. A target heart rate was calculated for each patient, and patients were instructed to perform exercise at an intensity at which the target heart rate level was reached. This intensity had been determined in an exercise test. Treadmill and MAS tests were conducted before and after the rehabilitation period. The main activities include swimming and table tennis (2.7±1.6 times per week). The results showed that the rehabilitation exercise enabled patients to reach target heart rates of 80〜110 beats/minute. No significant difference was observed in treadmill exercise tolerance time and MAS scores during the nonsupervised rehabilitation period. These findings suggest that exercise tolerance in patients was maintained without worsening of anxiety during the nonsupervised sports rehabilitation period.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the occurrence of falls on the physical fitness and the psychological function of community-dwelling people aged 75 years and over by a one-year longitudinal observation. A total of 450 elderly subjects (162 males and 288 females) participated in a follow-up survey after a one-year baseline survey. We analyzed the collected data in 338 subjects (128 males and 210 females) who did not experience falling in the past year in the baseline survey. We compared the change of values from baseline to the follow-up survey between elderly subjects who experienced falling (the faller group) and those who did not experience falling (the non-faller group) during the one-year follow-up period. The prevalence of falls on elderly males and females during a one-year follow-up period was 18.0% and 18.6%, respectively. The faller group had significantly reduced values of maximum trunk flexion in a sitting position (non-faller group, -1.33cm vs. faller group, -4.09cm, p=0.026) and one-leg standing times with eyes open (non-faller group, 2.13sec. vs. faller group, -9.62sec., p=0.003) during the follow-up period, compared to the non-faller group. The change in preferred and maximum speed walking for 10 meters, grip strength, timed up and go test, the change in scores of self-efficacy for activity, TMIG index of competence, and Motor Fitness Scale were not significantly different between the faller group and the non-faller group. These results suggest that the occurrence of falls accelerated the reduction of body flexibility and balance ability with aging.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among mental skills, length of sport activity experience, motivation to participate in sport, and the onset of disability using physically disabled male wheelchair athletes. Twenty-seven male wheelchair athletes completed the Diagnostic Inventory of Psychological-Competitive Ability for Athletes (DIPCA: Tokunaga & Hashimoto, 1994) to assess psychological-competitive abilities as mental skills. Results demonstrated that (1) wheelchair athletes who were motivated to compete scored higher on volition for competition, confidence and cooperation than athletes motivated by health promotion, (2) among experienced athletes, wheelchair athletes who were motivated to compete scored higher on total score and predictive ability than athletes motivated by health promotion, and (3) wheelchair athletes with a greater time duration from the onset of their disability scored higher marks in mental stability and concentration. Consequently, these results suggest that length of sport activity experience, motivation to participate in sport, and the onset of disability were correlation with psychological-competitive abilities among physically disabled wheelchair athletes.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a physical exercise on hyperlipidemia in psychiatric patients. Seventeen patients (males=10, females=7; mean age: 45.2 years; mean duration of illness: 20.1 years) participated in this study. Status of the continual exercise program, body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (T-chol), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoproptein cholesterol (HDL-C), blood glucose (Glu) and endurance time were assessed before and at six-months and twelve-months after starting the program. The exercise program consisted mainly of 30 to 45 minutes of cycling once or twice per week. As a result, eight subjects (regular exercise group) underwent a physical exercise regularly at twelve months and nine subjects (irregular exercise group) discontinued participation in the study. The regular exercise group showed a significant decrease in TG after twelve months (p<0.05), and a tendency for an increase in endurance time after twelve months. In the BMI, the regular exercise group did not show an increase. However, the irregular exercise group showed an increase in BMI, T-chol and Glu at six to twelve months. These results suggest that long-term and continual regular exercise is important for psychiatric patients with hyperlipidemia, obesity and diabetes to improve their physical management. Our findings indicated that a physical exercise program is effective for these patients

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The purpose of this investigation was to collect data on sports and recreation programs at service centers for people with physical disabilities. The results of the study could be useful in increasing sports and recreation activities among the disabled. The data were collected from questionnaires to which 202 of 300 service centers replied. The results are as follows: 1. Many service centers for the disabled adopt sports or physical activity programs. 2. The rate of conducting sports activities differs depending on the size and the type of the service centers for the disabled. 3. Severer disabilities, lack of sports instructors, and insufficient space and time are negative factors in conducting sports activities. 4. It is suggested that dispatching sport instructors and providing sport programs to a service center for the disabled contribute to diffuse sports among people with disabilities. 5. It is necessary for instructors of adapted physical activity that they can deal with people with various disabilities in a sport program.

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This study evaluated the interpretation and future direction of inclusion of sports for the disabled on the basis of the results of an investigation carried out in officials of the 1st National Sports Games for the Disabled. Concerning the event as a whole, the hardware was evaluated less favorably by the physically handicapped because of differences in impaired functions. Also, differences in the concept of sports for mentally disabled and physically disabled between game officials and managers, and coaches became clear concerning changes in the Guidelines for Implementation of the Games, which had competitive aspects. The findings suggested the importance of promoting international understanding of inclusion in sports events for the disabled, advancing from general understanding to establishment of the concept of inclusion of sports for the physically disabled and the mentally disabled, and improving support and allocation of social resources to gain equal respect for the physically and mentally disabled with inclusion.

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