COVID-19 mortality burden and comorbidity patterns among decedents with and without intellectual and developmental disability in the US.
Scott D Landes, Julia M Finan, Margaret A Turk
PMID 36175298WHAT IT FOUND
COVID-19 was the leading cause of death for people with intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome in the US in 2020, unlike the general population where it was third.
Decedents with these disabilities died at much younger ages than those without.
Key findings
01COVID-19 was the leading cause of death for decedents with intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome, whereas it was the third leading cause for those without IDD.
02Adjusted risk ratios showed that decedents with Down syndrome had 2.1 times higher risk of COVID-19 death, intellectual disability 1.6 times, and cerebral palsy 1.5 times, compared to those without IDD.
03People with IDD died from COVID-19 at significantly younger ages; for example, 15.1% of decedents with Down syndrome were 65 or over, compared to 74.3% of those without IDD.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study relies on death certificate data, which may underreport intellectual disability. It cannot determine if the increased burden continues beyond 2020 due to ongoing issues with diagnostic overshadowing in preliminary data. Social determinants of health, such as congregate living settings, were not measured and may explain part of the disparity. The analysis is limited to decedents; it does not provide data on infection rates or survival among living people with IDD.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the higher risk ratios as evidence that the disability itself biologically causes death from COVID-19. The study notes that social factors, such as living in congregate care settings and inequities in healthcare access, likely contributed to the burden but were not measured.