Heterogeneity in age at death for adults with developmental disability.
Adults with CP or several DD labels die earliest, so move them to the top of your medical screening list.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Wormald et al. (2019) pulled a giant U.S. death file. They looked at adults who had any developmental disability label.
They split the group by exact diagnosis and sex. Then they asked who died younger and who lived longer.
What they found
Adults with cerebral palsy or several DD labels died earliest. Adults with intellectual disability only lived longer, but still less than adults without DD.
Men with each label died younger than women with the same label. The gaps were large enough to change service planning.
How this fits with other research
Papazoglou et al. (2014) warned that DSM-5 drops one adaptive domain. That move shrinks the ID-only group by nine percent. D et al. counted people under those same rules, so the "longer-living" ID-only pool is already smaller.
Sheppard et al. (2014) gave us a swallowing tool for adults with DD. Their work shows we already have sharp health screens; D et al. now tell us which adults need those screens first — CP and multi-DD cases.
Matson et al. (2009) graded grasp force by DD severity. They also found the profound subgroup stood out. D et al. echo that idea: severity labels predict life span the same way they predict motor variability.
Why it matters
When you write a health-care plan, put CP and multi-DD adults at the front of the line for cancer, heart, and pneumonia checks. Offer ID-only adults aging-in-place supports, but expect more years of service. List sex as a risk factor and schedule men earlier. One quick file note now can add years later.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Open each adult file, flag CP or multi-DD, and move their annual physical one quarter earlier.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Although increased attention has been devoted to mortality trends for adults with developmental disability, research has not accounted for possible differences in age at death between disability types. We examine whether heterogeneity is present in age at death between adults with different types of developmental disability. METHODS: Data were from the 2012-2016 U.S. Multiple Cause-of-Death Mortality files. Mean age at death and age at death distributions were analysed for adults, aged 18-126, with and without developmental disability collectively and then stratified by biological sex. RESULTS: There were 33 154 decedents with and 13 026 759 without developmental disability. Compared with adults without developmental disability, age at death was lower for all decedents with developmental disability but varied markedly by disability type and biological sex. Among adults with developmental disability, those with intellectual disability had the highest age at death, and those with cerebral palsy or other rare developmental disabilities, especially if co-morbid for a second developmental disability, had the lowest age at death. CONCLUSION: Research on age at death for adults with developmental disability must account for heterogeneity among disability types in order to ensure reliable estimates. Failure to do so conceals important differences between disability types, which can misguide public health and preventive care efforts to reduce premature mortality and/or provide aging-related supports.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2019 · doi:10.1111/jir.12672