Hussain, R

Wark, Stuart

Janicki, M

Parmenter, T

Knox, M

2018

Background: Authors explore the impact of certain chronic diseases/disorders which are linked with poor mental health amongst older people with intellectual disability (PwID). Method: Cross-sectional face-to-face survey of 392 adults aged > 60 years living in community settings in urban and rural regions of Australia. Mental health composite score (MCS) was derived from MoS-SF12, a QoL instrument with high internal and external validity. Results: Mean age was 65.2 years (SD 4.4); males = 62.7%. MCS values were close to population norm (X = 50.4, SD 9.9) but showed a wide range (18.1-70.8) indicating very poor mental health for some study respondents. MSC values did not differ significantly between urban and rural residents. Prevalence of chronic diseases/disorders was: arthritis (40.4%), diabetes (25.6%), asthma (16.1%), coronary disease (14.8%), chronic pain (26.9%), sleep disturbance (22.3%), and falls (29.2%). MCS values were significantly lower for chronic pain, sleep, and falls; whereas, mean MCS was lower for coronary disease and hearing loss, but not statistically significant. Respondents with multiple co-morbidity had lower MCS. Conclusion: Primary care management of chronic diseases/disorders for older PwID is important. The clustering of certain chronic conditions calls for health promotion strategies to improve mental health of older PwID.

Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 31(4), p. 553-553

1468-3148

1360-2322

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/23546

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Is mental health status affected by chronic diseases in older people with intellectual disability?

Conference Publication

Publication