Quality of life, satisfaction with care, and the experiences of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities before and during COVID-19.
Emily J Hickey, Allison Caudill, Hannah Laufenberg and 3 others
PMID 37980230WHAT IT FOUND
Self-reported quality of life dropped during the pandemic, but this disappeared when accounting for who reported it.
Care partners reported higher quality of life than the adults themselves. Satisfaction with care services remained stable across both time points.
Key findings
01Quality of life was initially found to be lower in 2021 than 2017, but this difference was not significant once reporter type and sex were included in the model.
02Care partners reported significantly higher quality of life for adults with IDD than the adults reported for themselves.
03Satisfaction with the amount and quality of long-term care services did not differ significantly between the pre-pandemic and during-pandemic samples.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The samples were anonymous and not linked, so it is impossible to know if the same people responded in 2017 and 2021. This means we cannot see how individual people changed over time. The mix of reporters changed between years. More people self-reported in 2017 (17%) than in 2021 (13%), and care partners reported higher quality of life than adults themselves, which may skew the year-to-year comparison. The study used single-item questions to measure quality of life and service satisfaction, which may not capture the complexity of these concepts compared to validated multidimensional scales. The analysis used linear regression on ordinal Likert scale data, which is a statistical mismatch that requires cautious interpretation. The sample was limited in racial diversity, with 80% of participants identifying as white.
Declared interests
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the pandemic caused a decline in quality of life for this population. The initial difference between years disappeared when accounting for who completed the survey, and care partners consistently reported higher quality of life than the adults themselves.