Mental and physical health conditions in people with intellectual disabilities: Comparing local and national data

Abstract

Accessible summary• People with intellectual disability have multiple health problems.• People with intellectual disability have more physical and mental health conditions than people without intellectual disabilities.• People with intellectual disability may need more health checks due to increased prevalence of physical and mental illnesses.• More studies are needed to understand what interventions are effective to reduce health problems in people with intellectual disability. AbstractBackground: Studies have reported increased prevalence of physical and mental health conditions in people with intellectual disabilities (ID) compared to people without intellectual disabilities. However, there are no studies looking into specific health conditions at a national level and comparing with areas that are socio-economically disadvantaged (e.g. low income and low education attainment). This study examines and compares the prevalence of physical and mental health morbidity in people with and without intellectual disabilities at a local and national level in the UK. Method:This study was an anecdotal analysis of physical and mental health data and annual health check-up for England (national), London (regional) and Haringey (innercity borough of London) in 2016/17 using data from the NHS Digital database.Results: Patterns of mental and physical conditions for people with and without intellectual disabilities were similar across Haringey, London and England data. Severe mental illness was more prevalent among people with intellectual disabilities compared to non-intellectual disability peers. This further increased in the inner-city London borough for the intellectual disability group. Certain physical health conditions were also more prevalent in people with intellectual disabilities. Certain activities such as monitoring blood pressure, recording body mass index and checking HbA1C were better in people with intellectual disabilities. Uptake of annual health checks for people with intellectual disabilities remained around 50%.Discussion: This study further highlights the increased prevalence of mental and physical disorders in people with intellectual disabilities compared to people without intellectual disabilities. Further increased risk of mental disorders in an inner London borough compared to national data aligns with existing literature that highlights the 20 |

COVID-19 deaths in people with intellectual disability in the UK and Ireland: descriptive study

“…It is well established that people with intellectual disability have more health problems compared with people without intellectual disability. 5 Furthermore, the prevalence of certain physical health conditions is higher in people with moderate-to-profound intellectual disability compared with people with mild intellectual disability. Of particular interest is the subanalysis of the prevalence of epilepsy within the intellectual disability group with an increased prevalence of epilepsy occurring in mild intellectual disability (9/22 v. 20/43 in the moderate-to-profound intellectual disability group) but with no statistical difference between the two groups.…”

“…4 Certain risk factors and comorbidities that are common in people with intellectual disability such as epilepsy and dysphagia are postulated to be possible reasons. 5 People with intellectual disability are more likely to have severe physical illnesses and/or disabilities. 5 A person with an intellectual disability may have numerous long-term conditions.…”

“…5 People with intellectual disability are more likely to have severe physical illnesses and/or disabilities. 5 A person with an intellectual disability may have numerous long-term conditions. 6…”

COVID-19 and people with intellectual disability: impacts of a pandemic

“…Respiratory infections are the leading cause of death in people with ID (O'Leary et al 2018) especially among people with Down syndrome . The level of obesity is higher among people with ID raising their risk of experiencing severe forms of infection with COVID-19 (Biswas et al 2010;Perera et al 2020). Overall, the prevalence of physical and mental disorders in people with ID is higher than in the general population (Cooper et al 2007;Perera et al 2020).…”

Are we training psychiatrists to develop skills in intellectual disability psychiatry? Current European context and future directions

“…It is well established that people with intellectual disabilities have significantly higher rates of mental [2] and physical health disorders [3] as well as social care needs which must be considered alongside one another. This means that they require high and complex multidisciplinary service provision with an estimated cost of over € 43 billion each year in Europe.…”