Feasibility of Telephone Counseling to Increase Physical Fitness in SCI

People with spinal cord injuries (SCI) are among the least physically active groups in our society. Approximately 1 in 4 healthy young persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) does not have sufficient fitness to perform many essential activities of daily living. About 50% of people with SCI engage in no leisure time physical activity. That is, they do not wheel or walk for pleasure, don't play a sport, don't exercise at home or go to a gym. As a result of this, cardiovascular, endocrine and metabolic conditions adversely affect the health of a large segment of the SCI population. Fortunately, clinic and/or laboratory-based aerobic conditioning and circuit training studies provide compelling evidence that people with SCI can improve their cardiorespiratory fitness and by doing so can partially reverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, enhance Quality of Life (QOL) and improve elements of subjective well-being. While intensive, clinic-based, supervised exercise programs can improve the fitness and health of persons with SCI, the value of these findings for the SCI population is limited because the vast majority of people do not have access to these specialized programs and facilities. The gap that the present study addresses is: How can we extend the benefits of increased exercise and physical activity to more people with SCI? The goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of an individually tailored, home- or community-based, telephone delivered intervention that uses evidence-based behavioral and motivational counseling to increase daily physical activity and exercise.