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Improving Beverage Choice in Adults with Developmental Disabilities: Implementation of a Token Reinforcement System in a Community Residential Setting

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Abstract

Individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) are twice as likely to have obesity than non-disabled individuals. Replacing the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) with water has many health benefits, including weight reduction. In this study, a token reinforcement system was implemented to increase water consumption and decrease the consumption of SSBs with 14 adult participants with DD living in a community-based independent supported living (ISL) center. Token reinforcement reduced the consumption of SSBs, with associated reductions in calorie consumption and body weight. Findings are especially important for treatment settings where resources for individualized meal planning and staffing to support comprehensive behavioral interventions may be limited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Public Health and Social Justice, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, USA

    Brandon K. May

  2. School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA

    Kwadwo Britwum

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63108, USA

    Brandon K. May & Ginger E. Nicol

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  1. Brandon K. May
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  2. Kwadwo Britwum
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  3. Ginger E. Nicol
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Contributions

BKM designed and implemented the study and prepared the manuscript. KB completed the statistical analyses and prepared the manuscript. GEN prepared the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Brandon K. May.

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Procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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May, B.K., Britwum, K. & Nicol, G.E. Improving Beverage Choice in Adults with Developmental Disabilities: Implementation of a Token Reinforcement System in a Community Residential Setting. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 1523–1535 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05051-3

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