Importance and satisfaction of preventive health strategies in institutions for people with intellectual disabilities: a perspective of institutional directors.
Big gaps exist between what institutional directors say is important for resident health and what actually gets done—target thyroid, osteoporosis, and mental-health services first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lin et al. (2005) mailed a short survey to every large residential facility in Taiwan. They asked directors to rate 14 preventive health items for importance and for how well each was actually done.
Items included thyroid checks for Down syndrome, bone-density scans, mental-health diagnosis, and flu shots. Directors scored both importance (1–10) and satisfaction (1–10).
What they found
Every item scored 8.4–9.7 on importance, but satisfaction lagged 2–4 points lower. The biggest gaps were thyroid screening, osteoporosis prevention, and mental-health services.
In plain words: directors knew these checks save lives, yet most residents were not getting them.
How this fits with other research
Robertson et al. (2017) later showed dysphagia screening is also skipped. Their review gives you the exact signs to watch for, filling a gap the directors complained about.
Bigby et al. (2009) audited charts and found only a large share of reflux-drug orders had a clear reason. Together the two papers prove the problem is wider than preventive labs; even daily meds can lack medical notes.
Faught et al. (2021) tracked hospital claims and found people with IDD had far more preventable stays. Their numbers confirm the price of the gaps Jin-Ding first flagged: missed screens turn into crisis admissions.
Why it matters
You can close these gaps without new money. Pick one missing screen—thyroid, bone, or mental health—and add it to the annual ISP checklist. Use the low-satisfaction scores to justify orders to physicians. One extra line on a form can cut ER visits later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AIM: To explore the perceptions of institutional directors on the preventive health strategies for people with intellectual disabilities in institutions. METHODS: A structured questionnaire was conducted by a cross-sectional postal survey in all registered institutions in Taiwan in 2002. A total of 157 questionnaires were mailed, of which 121 valid questionnaire were analyzed in this study. RESULTS: The respondents indicated important perception to the preventive health strategies across the 17 criteria, the mean score of importance in preventive health strategies was from 8.4 to 9.7 (score 1-10). But the analysis found that there were many gaps of 'importance' compared with 'satisfactory' to implementation of preventive health strategies, particularly in the issues of 'thyroid screening for intellectual disabilities (ID) with Down syndrome', 'prevention and treatment of osteoporosis', and 'diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders', these health issues need to be improved in institutions. The present study found that the size and ownership of institutions were not related to the perceptions of importance and satisfaction toward preventive health strategies. CONCLUSIONS: The institutions should explore the reasons of why the failure to carry through important health plans into practice to ensure quality of health services for people with ID who living in institutions.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2005 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2004.11.001