Biopsychosocial factors associated with depression and anxiety in older adults with intellectual disability: results of the wave 3 Intellectual Disability Supplement to The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.
Loneliness, poor sleep, and aggression quietly flag depression or anxiety in older adults with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bellon-Harn et al. (2020) asked older Irish adults with intellectual disability about mood and worry.
They used one-time surveys and health records to find what goes with depression and anxiety.
What they found
One in ten felt depressed and one in seven felt anxious.
Lonely people had the highest risk for both problems.
Aggressive behavior and mood pills linked only to depression; poor sleep linked only to anxiety.
How this fits with other research
Lundqvist (2013) saw the same sleep–worry link in Swedish adults with ID, but also found that autism raised risk. The Irish study shows the sleep signal still matters after age 65.
Austin et al. (2015) explain why loneliness hurts: adults with ID already live in smaller, weaker family networks. L et al. now show that thin social fabric turns into real mood symptoms later in life.
Schiltz et al. (2023) tracked anxiety and depression over time and found each one feeds the other. The Irish snapshot agrees both show up together, but cannot tell which comes first.
Why it matters
You can spot mood trouble early by asking about three everyday things: Who did you talk with today? How did you sleep? Any recent outbursts? Add brief loneliness and sleep questions to your intake forms. Build simple social activities—group walks, phone check-ins—into care plans. These low-cost steps may prevent bigger mental-health crises down the road.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Depression and anxiety are amongst the most prevalent mental health disorders in the older population with intellectual disability (ID). There is a paucity of research that pertains to associative biopsychosocial factors for depression and anxiety in this population. The aim of this study is to determine the biopsychosocial factors associated with depression and anxiety in a population of older adults with ID in Ireland. METHODS: The study was part of 'The Intellectual Disability Supplement to The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing'. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Glasgow Depression Scale for people with a Learning Disability. Anxiety symptoms were measured using the Glasgow Anxiety Scale for people with a Learning Disability. The cross-sectional associations of depression and anxiety with biopsychosocial parameters were measured using a variety of self-report and proxy-completed questionnaires. RESULTS: For the study population, 9.97% met the criteria for depression, and 15.12% met the criteria for an anxiety disorder. Participants meeting criteria for depression were more likely to be taking regular mood stabiliser medications and to exhibit aggressive challenging behaviour. Participants meeting criteria for anxiety were more likely to have sleep difficulties and report loneliness. Participants meeting criteria for either/both depression and anxiety were more likely to report loneliness. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified both treatable and modifiable, as well as unmodifiable, biopsychosocial factors associated with depression and/or anxiety in older adults with ID. A longitudinal study follow-up will further develop our knowledge on the causality and direction of associated biopsychosocial factors with depression and anxiety in older adults with ID and better inform management strategies, prevention policies and funding of services.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2020 · doi:10.1111/jir.12724