Fostering positive attitudes towards interacting with young people with disability among health students: a stepped-wedge trial

PurposeTo investigate if a 12-week community-based exercise program (FitSkills) fostered positive attitudes towards disability among university student mentors.MethodsA stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial was completed with 4 clusters. Students were eligible to be a mentor if enrolled in an entry-level health degree (any discipline, any year) at one of three universities. Each mentor was matched with a young person with a disability and the pair exercised together at the gym twice a week for an hour (24 sessions total). At 7 times over 18 months, mentors completed the Disability Discomfort Scale to indicate their level of discomfort when interacting with people with disability. Data were analysed according to the intention to treat principles using linear mixed-effects models to estimate changes in scores over time.ResultsA total of 207 mentors completed the Disability Discomfort Scale at least once, of whom 123 participated in FitSkills. Analysis found an estimated reduction of 32.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) -36.8 to -28.4) in discomfort scores immediately after exposure to FitSkills across all four clusters. These decreases were sustained throughout the remainder of the trial.ConclusionsMentors reported more positive attitudes towards interacting with people with disability after completing FitSkills with changes retained for up to 15 months.