The health of parents with and without intellectual impairment in the UK

Emerson, Eric Broughton and Llewellyn, Gwynnyth and Hatton, Christopher Rowan and Hindmarsh, G. and Robertson, Janet Margaret and Man, W. Y. N. and Baines, Susannah May Johnston (2015) The health of parents with and without intellectual impairment in the UK. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 59 (12). pp. 1142-1154. ISSN 0964-2633

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Abstract

Background Little is known about the health and well-being of the ‘hidden majority’ of parents with mild intellectual disability (ID), who are less likely to be in contact with disability services. Method We sought to add to knowledge in this area by examining the health and living conditions of parents with and without intellectual impairment in a large contemporary nationally representative sample of UK parents aged between 16 and 49 years old (n = 14 371). Results Our results indicated that, as expected, parents with intellectual impairment were at significantly greater risk than other parents of having poorer self-reported general, mental and physical health. They were also at significantly greater risk of experiencing higher rates of household socio-economic disadvantage and environmental adversities and lower rates of neighbourhood social capital and intergenerational support. Adjusting risk estimates to take account of between group differences in household socio-economic disadvantage eliminated statistically significant differences in health status between parents with and without intellectual impairment on all but one indicator (obesity). Further adjusting risk estimates to take account of between group differences in neighbourhood adversity, neighbourhood social capital and intergenerational support had minimal impact on the results. Conclusions That controlling for between-group differences in exposure to socio-economic disadvantage largely eliminated evidence of poorer health among parents with intellectual impairment is consistent with the view that a significant proportion of the poorer health of people with IDs may be attributable to their poorer living conditions rather than biological factors associated with ID per se.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
Additional Information:
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Emerson, E., Llewellyn, G., Hatton, C., Hindmarsh, G., Robertson, J., Man, W.  Y.  N., and Baines, S. (2015) The health of parents with and without intellectual impairment in the UK. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 59: 1142–1154. doi: 10.1111/jir.12218 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jir.12218/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2728
Subjects:
?? healthparentingparentspovertysocioeconomic disadvantageclinical neurologyrehabilitationpsychiatry and mental healthneurology ??
ID Code:
79181
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
08 Aug 2016 08:56
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
19 Dec 2023 01:26