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

To investigate if a 12-week community-based exercise program (FitSkills) fostered positive attitudes towards disability among university student mentors. A 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. A 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. Mentors reported more positive attitudes towards interacting with people with disability after completing FitSkills with changes retained for up to 15 months. Participating in a 12-week community physical activity program fostered lower levels of discomfort in interacting with young people with disability among university student mentors. Student mentor's positive attitudes to disability were sustained for up to 15 months following the program. Mentors with no previous experience of disability had a larger reduction in discomfort scores than mentors who had previous disability experience. We recommend short-duration (24 hours over 12 weeks) community-based experiences such as FitSkills to positively impact how entry-level health professional students relate to young people with disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]