Health care utilisation in infants and young children born to women with intellectual and developmental disabilities: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Babies of moms with IDD are twice as likely to land in the NICU—start care coordination the moment you know.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team hunted every paper on babies born to moms with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
They pulled out numbers on NICU stays, shots, and hospital readmissions.
Only a handful of small studies existed, so they combined them to see the big picture.
What they found
NICU admission odds were doubled for these babies.
Immunization rates and later hospital stays looked the same as other kids.
The authors warn the evidence is thin—few studies, mostly old data.
How this fits with other research
Oliver et al. (2002) saw the same NICU spike in babies with Down syndrome.
Their lens was the child’s diagnosis; Lotfizadeh et al. (2020) show the mom’s IDD alone carries similar risk.
Nijs et al. (2016) found adults with ID miss preventive care, hinting that care gaps start at birth and echo for decades.
Together the papers trace a line: when IDD is in the family, both newborns and adults use acute care more yet get less routine care.
Why it matters
You can flag pregnancies involving moms with IDD early.
Push for extra prenatal visits, NICU bed planning, and discharge teaching that uses plain language and visuals.
One proactive referral can cut crisis admissions later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Mothers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) experience socio-economic and health disparities which could impact their offspring's health care utilisation. We systematically reviewed evidence on health care utilisation in infants and young children of women with and without IDD. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched from inception to October 2019 for studies examining preventive care, immunisations, emergency department visits, and hospitalisations. Data extraction and quality assessment were performed using standardised tools. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were generated using random effects models for outcomes with data available from ≥3 studies. RESULTS: Four articles describing three cohort studies and one cross-sectional study met our criteria. Maternal IDD status was associated with increased neonatal intensive care unit admission rates (pooled OR 2.03; 95% CI 1.31, 3.13). There were no differences in immunisation rates or hospitalisations. CONCLUSIONS: Few studies have examined the impact of maternal IDD status on health care utilisation in their infants and young children. More high-quality studies are needed.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2020 · doi:10.1111/jir.12720