Indiana U. at APHA: Studies about health education for people with ID, stability bal...(llectual and physical disabilities can l...)

"Disability no longer precludes good health," Bodde said. "People with disabilities can have full and healthy lives and this should be an expectation."

Co-authors include Dong-Chul Seo, Department of Applied Health Science; Georgia Frey, Department of Kinesiology; Marieke Van Puymbroeck, Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies; and David Lohrmann, Department of Applied Health Science.

Bodde will present her study on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 4:30 p.m. in Hall A-B. She can be reached at weavera@indiana.edu.

Using a stability ball as an office chair strengthens core muscles, similar to the use of a backless chair or stool; the freedom of movement from a stability ball also may decrease confined or constrained body postures that frequently occur at workstations.

Additionally, a study by Indiana University ergonomics experts found that reaching with the nondominant hand results in different firing patterns in leg musculature compared to reaching with the dominant hand.

"It's a learning effect. When you use your dominant hand, your firing patterns are more established, even in the lower body, to stabilize the movement. Interestingly, when reaching with the nondominant hand, muscle recruitment appears to be different," said Kelly Jo Baute, a researcher in the Indiana Ergonomics lab in Indiana University's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

Baute and her colleagues at Indiana Ergonomics investigated the effects that performing a common reaching task had on muscle activity in the legs while sitting on a stability ball. They found that the greatest muscle activity was located in the anterior tibialis (shin muscle) which acted in coordination with the hamstrings muscles to provide a stable foundation during the reaching m
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