Comparing the quality of life of adults with and without intellectual disability.
Health status is the main lever for improving quality of life in adults with ID, but large gaps remain that services must target directly.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers asked the adults in Half had intellectual disability. Half did not.
They used a short quality-of-life survey. It asked about health, money, friends, and daily life.
The team wanted to see who felt better and why.
What they found
Adults without ID scored higher on every part of the survey. The gap was biggest in health.
Health status was the top predictor for both groups. When health was equal, the gap shrank but did not vanish.
How this fits with other research
Eggleston et al. (2018) show that adults with ID who have four or more health problems face double the death risk. This matches the new finding that health drives QOL.
Pitchford et al. (2019) found that older adults with ID return to the hospital more often for nerve, lung, and bone problems. The QOL gap may partly come from these repeat stays.
Landes (2017) adds that the death-rate gap between adults with and without ID gets smaller after age 65. This looks like a contradiction, but it is not. The new study looked at, where the gap is wide. The 2017 study looked at seniors, where health care and support may finally catch up.
Prigge et al. (2013) show that adults with mild ID now stay in the hospital twice as long as before. Longer stays can hurt QOL, so the new data fit the larger picture.
Why it matters
You can raise QOL by treating health first. Schedule yearly physicals. Track meds. Teach fitness. Push doctors to treat pain and sleep issues. Small health gains can lift the whole life picture for your adult clients.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QOL) is an important issue for all citizens, comprising equity, equality, inclusion and participation of each person in society. The research purposes driving this investigation were (1) to compare QOL among people with and without intellectual disability (ID) and (2) to examine the predictors of QOL in both groups of participants. METHODS: Data were collected from 1929 adults, including 1264 individuals with an ID and the remainder (n = 665) were participants without a disability. QOL was assessed by the Portuguese version of the Personal Outcomes Scale. RESULTS: The findings supported significantly higher QOL for adults without ID. Furthermore, QOL is influenced by individual and environmental variables, stressing that the health status was the highest mutual predictor of QOL among those with and without ID. CONCLUSION: The gaps among both groups of participants should be addressed in service provision and policies. Taking into account the research findings, the personalised supports should enable the full inclusion and participation of adults with ID in community-based settings.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2016 · doi:10.1111/jir.12256