THE CHALLENGE:

The culture of fitness has taught us we can do anything, but people with Down syndrome are told the exact opposite. Fitness isn’t something we encourage or emphasize for the Down syndrome community. Due to decreased muscle tone and hyper flexibility in their joints, we underestimate what they can accomplish.

Despite this, anecdotal cases have clearly demonstrated that fitness helps people with Down syndrome become not only physically stronger, but mentally stronger too - a potentially ground-breaking connection that could empower the community. But there continues to be a lack of knowledge and lingering misperceptions about the effects of fitness on Down syndrome - in particular among doctors and parents who actively discourage fitness rather than encouraging it.

This left the Canadian Down Syndrome Society with two key objectives in mind:

1. Prove the powerful effects of fitness through data, so it can be encouraged by doctors and parents within the community
2. Drive widespread awareness of the importance of fitness for people with Down syndrome

THE ONE-LINE KEY INSIGHT:

Fitness holds the power to help improve cognition for people with Down syndrome, but they are often discouraged from participating.

THE ONE-LINE IDEA:

Introducing TheMindsets Paper, a globally unprecedented study to prove the link between exercise and cognition for the Down syndrome community.

THE PLAN:

We launched on World Down Syndrome Day, recruiting individuals with Down syndrome, with the goal of tracking the impact of physical activity on their cognitive abilities, on a scale that’s never been done before. We partnered with Dr. Dan Gordon, Paralympian and Associate Professor in Cardiorespiratory Exercise Physiology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) to lead the research study, and Dr. Henry Mahncke and his team at BrainHQ to aid us in selecting the appropriate cognitive tests. To precisely measure the impact of exercise on their abilities, researchers recorded standard physical and cognitive assessments at the beginning and end of the study.

With only $5,000 in media, we had to find a cost-friendly avenue to recruit the Down syndrome community. We launched a social video showcasing the barriers people with Down syndrome experience when it comes to fitness and encouraging recruitment for the study. We then reached out to over 50 influencers in the Down syndrome community, including content creators, parents, and other key advocacy groups, asking them to share our campaign. This helped our recruitment efforts reach an international scale.

To learn more about the study, our audience was driven to cdss.ca/mindsets, which was built to be informative and inviting to encourage involvement. We then screened potential participants both with physical and cognitive tests, including doctor confirmation, to ensure they could complete the required tasks. Once qualified participants were approved, they were randomly placed in one of four cohorts to meet the study’s requirements. Participants were then provided a Fitbit to record their physical activity and access to the Mindsets app where they could record cognitive exercises after completing their physical activity. The app also connects research coordinators with study participants to motivate and keep them on track. Regular communication between the research team and the participants, through the app, answered any questions, and sent encouraging Coach Chris videos to maintain engagement over the eight-week study.

WHAT HAPPENED/RESULTS:

The Mindsets Paper achieved global reach. ROI is incalculable, but on a cost per impression basis, 36,000 impressions per $ spent isn’t bad. Campaign results are as follows:

Prove the importance of fitness through research and data:

• 200 eligible participants recruited from 4 different continents - successfully achieving our research goal of becoming the first ever, statistically-significant study on exercise and cognition within the Down syndrome community.
• After only 8 weeks, initial data has showed life-changing improvements across the following metrics:

- 89% improvement in cognitive tests, a statistically significant improvement
- 63% reported improvements in Verbal Communication
- 50% reported improvements in Numeracy Skills
- 75% reported improvements in Self Confidence
- 63% reported improvements in Reading Ability
- 64% reported improvements in Day-to-day Life

Drive awareness of the importance of fitness:

• With a small media budget of only $5,000, we achieved 180M media impressions
• 1.6M video views across our social media channels

The completed research study will be shared at world-renowned conferences and in accredited medical journals later in 2022 to ensure physical activity becomes a prescribed therapy for people with Down syndrome.

CDSS - The Mindsets Paper

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