The Impact of Human Service Provider Quality on the Personal Outcomes of People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Carli Friedman
PMID 36188785WHAT IT FOUND
Higher quality human service providers are associated with more personal outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Living in one's own home or with family also linked to better outcomes than provider-owned homes. Therapy services availability associated with more outcomes.
Key findings
01For every one Basic Assurance indicator present (out of 92), people with IDD's quality of life increased by 0.07, regardless of their or their providers' demographics.
02Compared to people with IDD who lived in provider owned- or operated-homes (11.07), people with IDD who lived in their own home (12.97), family homes (12.57), and host homes or family foster care (13.58) had more personal outcomes present.
03People with IDD who received services from providers that offered therapy services had more outcomes present (7.42) than people with IDD who received services from providers that did not offer therapy services (5.93).
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
This is a cross-sectional, correlational study; it cannot prove that higher provider quality causes better personal outcomes. The study relied on secondary data, so researchers could not ask follow-up questions or add variables. There was a large amount of missing data. The study did not know if individuals actually received therapy services, only that their provider offered them. The impact of virtual data collection during the pandemic is unknown. Interactions between variables were not explored.
Declared interests
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that therapy services cause better quality of life. The study only shows an association between providers who offer therapy services and higher outcome scores, without confirming if the individuals actually received those services or which specific therapies were involved.