Premium
Evidence of continued reduction in the age‐at‐death disparity between adults with and without intellectual and/or developmental disabilities
Author(s) -
Landes Scott D.,
McDonald Katherine E.,
Wilmoth Janet M.,
Carter Grosso Erika
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1468-3148
pISSN - 1360-2322
DOI - 10.1111/jar.12840
Subject(s) - intellectual disability , death certificate , cerebral palsy , young adult , psychology , developmental age , cause of death , medicine , developmental psychology , gerontology , demography , psychiatry , disease , pathology , sociology
Background This study examines recent trends in the age‐at‐death disparity between adults with and without intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in the United States. Method Data were from the 2005–2017 U.S. death certificates. Average age at death was compared between adults whose death certificate did or did not report an intellectual and/or developmental disability. Results Age at death increased minimally for adults without, but markedly for adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. As a result, the age‐at‐death disparity decreased: 2.2 years between adults with/without intellectual disability; 1.9 years between adults with/without Down syndrome; 2.7 years between adults with/without cerebral palsy; and 5.1 years between adults with/without rare developmental disabilities. Conclusion Evidence from this study demonstrates that the age‐at‐death disparity between adults who did or did not have an intellectual and/or developmental disability reported on their death certificate continues to decrease, but the magnitude of the remaining disparity varied considerably by type of disability.