Pilot Evaluation of the Impacts of Special Olympics Healthy Athletes® Screening Events on Referral, Follow-up, and Health Behavior of Special Olympics Athletes

For this project we will contact 450 athletes and/or those who speak for them to assess the effects of their attendance at Healthy Athlete® screenings in a window 3-6 months following the screenings (300 athletes following US events and 150 Latin American athletes following Latin American events). We intend to follow at least 150 who attended each of three types of screenings: Healthy Hearing screenings, Opening Eye screenings, and Special Smiles screenings.

By coordinating event and participant selection with Special Olympics staff, we will attempt to maximize the number of athletes in the US and Latin American samples who attended at least two and, desirably, all three screenings.

Through telephone interview, we will:

1. Assess each athlete for any behavior changes made by the athlete after attending each Healthy Athlete® screening.
2. Assess the athlete’s (and those who speak for the athlete) understanding of the referrals (if any) they received during each screening.
   
3. Determine whether the athlete followed the referral (located and utilized the resource/specialist/practitioner recommended during the screening).
4. Determine how pursuing the referral, and following the specialist’s or practitioner’s advice, affected their health, behavior, or use of prosthetics.
5. Obtain additional demographic information on each athlete and their supporters regarding their involvement in Special Olympics and their overall access to health-related care and services.

We will report results with descriptive tables and figures, supplemented by statistical analyses where sample sizes permit.

 

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