The impact of living arrangements and deinstitutionalisation in the health status of persons with intellectual disability in Europe

BACKGROUND

Despite progress in the process of deinstitutionalisation, very little is known about the health conditions of people with intellectual disability (PWID) who live in large institutions and PWID living in small residential services, family homes or independent living within the community. Furthermore, there are no international comparison studies at European level of the health status and health risk factors of PWID living in fully staffed residential services with formal support and care compared with those living in unstaffed family homes or independent houses with no formal support.

METHODS

A total of 1269 persons with ID and/or their proxy respondents were recruited and face-to-face interviewed in 14 EU countries with the P15, a multinational assessment battery for collecting data on health indicators relevant to PWID. Participants were grouped according to their living arrangements, availability of formal support and stage of deinstitutionalisation.

RESULTS

Obesity and sedentary lifestyle along with a number of illnesses such as epilepsy, mental disorders, allergies or constipation were highly prevalent among PWID. A significantly higher presence of myocardial infarctions, chronic bronchitis, osteoporosis and gastric or duodenal ulcers was found among participants in countries considered to be at the early stage of deinstitutionalisation. Regardless of deinstitutionalisation stage, important deficits in variables related to such medical health promotion measures as vaccinations, cancer screenings and medical checks were found in family homes and independent living arrangements. Age, number of people living in the same home or number of places in residential services, presence of affective symptoms and obesity require further attention as they seem to be related to an increase in the number of illnesses suffered by PWID.

DISCUSSION

Particular illnesses were found to be highly prevalent in PWID. There were important differences between different living arrangements depending on the level of formal support available and the stage of deinstitutionalisation. PWID are in need of tailored primary health programs that guarantee their access to quality health and health promotion and the preventative health actions of vaccination programs, systematic health checks, specific screenings and nutritional controls. Extensive national health surveys and epidemiological studies of PWID in the EC member states are urgently needed in order to reduce increased morbidity rates among this population.

The P15 - a multinational assessment battery for collecting data on health indicators relevant to adults with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND

Health disparities between adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) and the general population have been well documented but, to date, no dedicated assessment battery for measuring health disparity has been available. This paper reports on the development and testing of a multinational assessment battery for collecting data on a range of health indicators relevant to adults with ID.

METHODS

An assessment battery (the P15) was developed following piloting, and administered to samples of adults with ID, in 14 EU countries. Samples were neither random, nor representative of the countries from which they were drawn. However, within the local health administration areas selected in each country, efforts were made to ensure samples were broadly representative of the typical living circumstances, ages and ability levels of the administrative population of adults with ID. The total sample comprised 1269 adults with ID, of whom 49% were female. The mean age was 41 years (range 19 to 90).

RESULTS

Overall, feasibility, internal consistency and face validity of the P15 was acceptable.

CONCLUSIONS

With some refinement the P15 could be useful for collecting data on health indicators known to be particularly important for adults with ID. It is useable in a range of countries and has the potential to highlight health inequity for adults with ID at a national or local level. Larger scale epidemiological studies are needed to exploit the potential of the P15 to address health inequity in this group.

Impact of size revisited: relation of number of residents to self-determination and deprivatization

Research suggests that, contrary to common expectations, size does not have an impact on quality of care in residential facilities for people with mental retardation. In the present study conducted in Norway, the impact of number of residents on two quality of care measures--deprivatization and self-determination--was analyzed. The argument was made that the lack of positive findings in earlier research may have been due to the following reasons: (a) the living unit not the facility is the appropriate focus of analysis and (b) the effect of size is nonlinear and makes a difference only within a size range outside the range included in many earlier studies. Data from Norwegian facilities support these arguments: Living unit size had a substantial impact on self-determination and deprivatization in the 1 to 5 size range but not among larger units.