Health and healthcare of people with learning disabilities in the United Kingdom through the COVID‐19 pandemic

Hatton, C. et al. (2024) Health and healthcare of people with learning disabilities in the United Kingdom through the COVID‐19 pandemic. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, (doi: 10.1111/bld.12578) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Background: During the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, many health services were withdrawn from people with learning disabilities, with negative impacts on people's health. What has happened to people's health and healthcare as we move beyond the pandemic? Methods: Access to health services and health status were tracked for 550 UK adults with learning disabilities, using structured online interviews with people with learning disabilities and online surveys with family members or paid carers. Information was provided four times, from Wave 1 (in the winter 2020/2021 ‘lockdown’) to Wave 4 (autumn 2022, over a year after public health protections stopped). Findings: By Wave 4, most people with learning disabilities had had COVID‐19, although high vaccination rates limited the number of people hospitalised. There was little evidence that use of GP services, community nurses, other therapists or annual health checks had increased over time, and at Wave 4 more people were having difficulty getting their medicines. People's health did not substantially improve over time. People with profound and multiple learning disabilities had poorer health and were less likely to be accessing health services. Conclusions: Improvements in access to health services for people with learning disabilities after the pandemic have not yet happened.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Research reported in this paper was funded by UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), and supported by the Department for Health and Social Care (National Institute for Health Research) as part of the UKRI‐DHSC COVID‐19Rapid Response Rolling Call (grant number COV0196), and also the National Institute for Health Research Policy Research Programme (grant number NIHR204404).
• Keywords: health and social care policy and practice, health, learning (intellectual) disabilities.
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Maguire, Ms Roseann and Jahoda, Professor Andrew
• Authors: Hatton, C., Hastings, R. P., Caton, S., Bradshaw, J., Jahoda, A., Kelly, R., Maguire, R., Oloidi, E., Taggart, L., Todd, S., and The Coronavirus and People with Learning Disabilities Study Team,
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Mental Health and Wellbeing
• Journal Name: British Journal of Learning Disabilities
• ISSN: 1354-4187
• ISSN (Online): 1468-3156
• Published Online: 15 January 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 The Authors
• First Published: First published in British Journal of Learning Disabilities 2024
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence