The National Institutes of Health will award more than $3.9 million over five years to researchers from the Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH) at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) to test the efficacy of a new socialization and sex education curriculum for young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Healthcare Finance reports.
CUNY SPH professor Dr. Suzanne McDermott and Associate Professor Dr. Heidi Jones will test the curriculum in a randomized controlled trial among 856 adolescents and young adults ages 16-27 years who receive services from disability providers in four of the five Developmental Disabilities Regions of the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are traditionally excluded from clinical trials under the assumption they can’t provide informed consent.
Half the participants will be randomized to receive an updated socialization and sex education curriculum in individualized sessions during home visits, and the other half will receive a group-based intervention on physical activity and nutrition in local community centers. Read more.
