Primary care for people with an intellectual disability - A group practice survey

This study describes the process of identification and subsequent examination of the delivery of health care to people with an intellectual disability in a single general practice. The study was undertaken in group practice with a list size of 11,425. Identification through practice and community intellectual disability teams was followed by a note-based assessment of health promotion and consultation rates. Comparison was made with age-sex matched non-disabled controls. A total of 26 individuals with an intellectual disability was identified, 14 male and 12 female, with an age range of 3 to 75 years. Of these 7 (26.9%) were on the local Social Services register. A diverse range of causes of disability was seen. People with an intellectual disability did not differ significantly from controls in terms of consultation rates. They were significantly less likely to have received regular immunisations (chi square = 4.92, df = 1, p = 0.027), urine analysis (Fisher's exact test, two tail, p = 0.014)) and cervical cytology (Fisher's exact test, two tail, p = 0.01). They were more likely to have epilepsy (chi square = 8, df = 2, p = 0.02), have had a greater number of outpatient appointments (t = 3.4, df = 50, p = 0.001) and have seen a greater number of specialists (t = 3.65, df = 50, p = 0.001). Only one health gain target baseline could be measured, the name of the key-worker in notes, this was present in 3 (11.5%) of cases