Cause-specific mortality of people with intellectual disability in a population-based, 35-year follow-up study

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate cause-specific mortality in people with intellectual disability (ID). It was based on a 35-year follow-up study of a nation-wide population of 2369 subjects aged between 2 and 97 years. The 1095 deceased people had accumulated 64 539 person-years. The research took the form of a prospective cohort study with mortality follow-up. Observed and expected deaths were calculated as standardized mortality ratios using the Finnish general population as the reference. Cause-specific mortality ratios were calculated by the level of ID, sex and age. The three most common causes of death were cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and neoplasms. Disease mortality was high up to 40 years of age, but did not increase thereafter. The difference between sexes in cause-specific mortality was smaller than in the general population. Cause-specific mortality differed significantly from the general population, with reduced mortality from neoplasms and external causes, but ageing individuals with mild ID had similar mortality patterns to the general population. The disparities in the cause-specific mortality between younger people with ID and the general population fade with advancing age, producing similar health risks. In preventative work, special attention should focus on common diseases and accidents in the community.

Causes of Late Deaths After Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

“…Most patients within this group died owing to pneumonia. High mortality due to pneumonia has often been connected to mental retardation (24) and seriously ill infants, as was the case in our study.…”

An evaluation of the effectiveness of annual health checks and quality of health care for adults with intellectual disability: an observational study using a primary care database

“…No association with cancer was found in the earlier studies in Lecistershire, 122 nor was it found a large 35-year follow-up study in Finland. 15 Although we found a small excess of mortality from cancer in adults with ID in our study, it varied by type, and was notably smaller for lung and prostate cancer. Cancer is thought to be a less prominent cause of death for people with ID, perhaps owing to the premature mortality within this group.…”

“…Local ID register-based studies have identified markedly higher mortality, with estimates in the age-adjusted risk of death ranging between 3 and 18 times higher than those of the general population. 5,15,16 This increased risk of death is seen across a range of conditions and is not limited to causes related to the underlying ID. Studies on disease prevalence and morbidity among people with ID, although limited, provide a similar picture, with an increased risk of epilepsy, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infections, accidents and sensory impairment.…”

The association of childhood intelligence with mortality risk from adolescence to middle age: Findings from the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s cohort study

“…It has been known for several decades that individuals who are severely cognitively impaired have increased rates of mortality in childhood, adolescence (Simila, von Wendt, & Rantakallio, 1986) and adulthood (Patja, Molsa, & Iivanainen, 2001;Patja, Iivanainen, Vesala, Oksanen, & Ruoppila, 2000). More recently, attention has been focussed on the inverse association of childhood cognition with mortality in adult life that appears to extend over the entire range of IQ (Batty, Deary, & Gottfredson, 2007).…”