Premium
The prevalence of intellectual disability in Limburg, the Netherlands
Author(s) -
Van Schrojenstein Lantmande Valk H. M. J.,
Wullink M.,
Van Den Akker M.,
Van HeurnNijsten E. W. A.,
Metsemakers J. F. M.,
Dinant G. J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00733.x
Subject(s) - intellectual disability , diversity (politics) , identification (biology) , data collection , population , service (business) , gerontology , psychology , medicine , demography , psychiatry , sociology , social science , business , botany , anthropology , biology , marketing
Background Current changes in care philosophy and diversity in care arrangements caused the need for a new estimate of the number of people with intellectual disability (ID), based on recent data. Previous estimates were based on client registrations, which was thought unreliable at this time. This manuscript studies the question how many people with ID can be found in (part of) the Netherlands. Methods Identification of people with ID through a combination of general practice (GP) data bases and service registrations in the province of Limburg. Results The prevalence of people with ID appeared to be between 0.64% and 0.70%. About 0.21–0.27% were living with family or on their own; 55% of them did not use common ID services. Conclusion Results are based on a combination of identification methods. Thirteen per cent of uncertain cases led to minimum and maximum estimates of the population. Limitations of the method and alternative ways of data collection are discussed.