Prevalence and Incidence of Cardiovascular Disease in Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review.
Marleen J de Leeuw, Thessa I M Hilgenkamp, Dederieke A M Maes-Festen and 3 others
PMID 40433833WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with intellectual disabilities have very high rates of heart failure and stroke, but the numbers vary wildly across studies.
Screening should not rely on medical records alone, as objective tests found far more cases. Treat these rates as a range, not a single number.
Key findings
01Heart failure prevalence in adults with intellectual disabilities ranged from 0.8% to 18.6%, and stroke prevalence ranged from 1.3% to 17.2%.
02Objective tests found substantially more cardiovascular disease than medical records did, with one study revealing 88.9% underdiagnosis of myocardial infarction.
03The high variability across studies prevented pooling the data, so no single overall prevalence or incidence rate can be reported.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The studies varied so much in how they diagnosed heart disease that the authors could not combine the results into a single overall rate. Nearly half of the included studies scored poorly on describing their participants and using valid methods to identify cardiovascular disease. The review only looked at adults, so it does not provide information on cardiovascular disease in children with intellectual disabilities. Most studies relied on medical records, which the review's own findings suggest significantly undercount the true number of cases.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The work was funded by three intellectual disability care organisations and the Department of General Practice at Erasmus MC.
The easy way to misread this
Do not quote a single percentage from this review as the true rate of heart disease in adults with intellectual disabilities. The numbers range from under 1% to over 18% depending on the study. This spread is not a random error; it shows that standard medical records miss the vast majority of cases, so the lower numbers are likely underestimates.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →