The Mental Health and Well-Being of Adults With Intellectual Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Across the UK: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Analysis.
UK adults with ID who kept exercising and working stayed mentally healthier through COVID-19.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Gillooly et al. (2025) tracked adults with intellectual disabilities across the UK through four COVID-19 waves. They asked how mental health and well-being changed as lockdowns came and went.
The team used survey data collected at four time points from 2020 to 2023. They looked at who stayed active, who kept social ties, and how these choices linked to mood and loneliness.
What they found
Mental health problems dropped slowly but steadily across the four waves. Adults who left home for exercise, work, volunteering, or classes kept the highest well-being and felt least lonely.
In short, movement and meaningful daytime roles acted like shields against pandemic stress.
How this fits with other research
Yuan et al. (2022) saw the opposite pattern in Chinese kids with ID: lockdown cut exercise to only 10 minutes a day. The clash disappears when you note age and freedom. Children relied on schools and parents for activity; UK adults could choose to walk or garden themselves.
Fahmie et al. (2013) showed well-being in UK adults with ID was stable for four years before COVID. Amanda’s work extends that story into crisis time and names the active ingredients: exercise and community roles.
Bartlo et al. (2011) already proved exercise boosts strength and quality of life in this population. The new study adds real-world proof that the benefit holds even during a global shutdown.
Why it matters
You can’t prescribe lockdowns, but you can prescribe movement and meaning. Build daily schedules that include walks, chores, or volunteer tasks. Invite clients to pick the activity and the buddy. These low-cost choices protected mental health when services were closed and they still work now.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Research concerning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and well-being of adults with intellectual disabilities has been cross-sectional and small scale. We examined the trajectory of mental health and well-being across the pandemic period across the UK and the factors which predicted different mental health trajectories. METHOD: Adults with intellectual disabilities participated in co-designed structured interviews. Four waves of data were collected between December 2020 and late 2022. At Wave 1, 621 adults with intellectual disabilities participated, with 355 at Wave 4. Well-being, pandemic anxiety, depression, anxiety, anger and loneliness outcomes were measured. Latent class mixed modelling was used to identify subgroups and within-group trajectories. RESULTS: Well-being and pandemic anxiety remained relatively stable across time, but levels of anger, depression, anxiety and loneliness reduced gradually over time. Overall patterns masked trajectory subgroups, with differences in intercept and steepness of decline or increase in mental health problems. Different factors were generally influential for trajectory class membership and overall change across time for outcomes. Leaving the house for exercise or green spaces reported increasing well-being and reduced loneliness. Similarly, those working, volunteering or in education at Wave 1 were found to have increasing well-being and reduced loneliness, sadness and worry, and increasing wellbeing and reducing anger if they were working pre-pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Social connection and engagement in purposeful activity were vital to maintaining the mental health and well-being of people with intellectual disabilities. Factors that were found to reduce mental well-being during the pandemic should be considered in planning for future major public health challenges and in promoting better mental well-being for people with intellectual disabilities in everyday life.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2025 · doi:10.1111/insr.12607