2023-04-19 08:57:40
People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have a higher risk of dying earlier than the general population. This difference increased significantly during the Covid pandemic, which saw more than four times higher mortality in people with intellectual disabilities than in the general population. Researchers at Radboudumc are registering this The Lancet Public Health.
The life expectancy of people with intellectual disabilities is on average 15 years lower than that of the general population. Maarten Cuypers and colleagues from the Department of Primary Care and the Academic Workshop Stronger on its own feet investigated what effect the corona pandemic has had on mortality in this group. The mortality rate turned out to increase even further. Cuypers: ‘People with an intellectual disability are often extra vulnerable to COVID; prevention and compliance with the basic rules is more difficult and within institutions and residential groups there is an increased risk of contamination due to the many close contacts. In addition, previous research showed that the often poorer general health gives an increased risk of a serious course of COVID.’
Increase in differences
To determine the exact size of these differences in mortality, the researchers compared the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021) with the years 2015-2019 before the pandemic broke out. Mortality from COVID-19 was more than four times higher in the intellectual disability population than in the general population, with a particularly large difference at a younger age. Cuypers: ‘In the two corona years, at least 785 people with an intellectual disability died of COVID, more than 600 more than would be expected based on mortality in the general population. We also saw that mortality from cancer, brain and nervous system disorders and from external causes (such as a fall) increased more among people with intellectual disabilities than in the rest of the population. This is an indication that the existing health disparities between people with and without intellectual disabilities have increased further during the pandemic. Few targeted measures have also been taken to protect this group.’
More attention to vulnerability
On the basis of the study the researchers conclude that more attention should be paid to the vulnerability of people with disabilities in both clinical practice and public health policy. In addition, a better infrastructure is needed for the monitoring of risk groups in such crisis situations. Cuypers: ‘Although monitoring COVID-19-related mortality is part of public health surveillance in the Netherlands and many other countries, the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on people with intellectual disabilities only became visible after we added data afterwards. linked each other. More awareness of this problem and better monitoring of vulnerable groups can lead to better policy in the future.’
Publication in The Lancet Public Health: All-cause and cause-specific mortality among people with and without intellectual disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands: a population-based cohort study – Maarten Cuypers, Monique CJ Koks-Leensen, Bianca WM Schalk, Esther J Bakker-van Gijssel, Prof Geraline L Leusink, Jenneken Naaldenberg
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