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Placement, relocation and end of life issues in aging adults with and without Down's syndrome: a retrospective study
Author(s) -
Patti P.,
Amble K.,
Flory M.
Publication year - 2010
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.1365-2788.2010.01279.x
Subject(s) - relocation , retrospective cohort study , medicine , gerontology , dementia , incidence (geometry) , cohort , nursing homes , intellectual disability , down syndrome , cohort study , demography , pediatrics , psychiatry , nursing , surgery , physics , disease , optics , programming language , sociology , computer science
Background Aging adults with Down's syndrome (DS) experience more relocations and other life events than adults with intellectual disabilities aged 50 and older without DS. Age‐related functional decline and the higher incidence of dementia were implicated as the contributing factors that led to relocation and nursing home placement. Method A retrospective study of adults with intellectual disabilities who were born prior to the year 1946 was conducted to analyse the number of relocations experienced over a 5‐ and 10‐year period. The cohort consisted of 140 individuals (61 with DS between ages 50–71 years, and 79 without DS between ages 57–89 years) who had been referred to a diagnostic and research clinic. Results Analyses revealed the number of relocations over a 5‐ and 10‐year period were significantly greater in the DS group. Placement in a nursing home for end of life care was significantly higher in the DS group whereas the majority (90%) in the non‐DS group remained in a group home setting. Mortality was significantly earlier in the DS group with the mean age at death to be 61.4 years compared with 73.2 years in the non‐DS group. Conclusions The present results suggest that aging adults with DS encounter more relocations, and are more likely to have their final placement for end of life care in a nursing home. In contrast, the adults without DS were subjected to less relocation and remained in the same group home setting.