Suchergebnisse

Background  People with intellectual disability often have poor health which may be improved through better health advocacy and enhanced communication with their general practitioner. To this end, we examined the use of the Comprehensive Health Assessment Program (CHAP) and the Ask health diary previously developed for adults with intellectual disability and trialled their use in adolescents attending a Special School.Materials and methods  A CHAP health review completed by both carers and General Practitioners was used to collect information about adolescents' health. An Ask health diary was used in school to learn health advocacy and communication skills. Thirty students, their parents and their eight teachers participated in the trial.Results  The CHAP health review resulted in a mean of 5.2 health conditions being found, and 1.4 planned actions by the general practitioner per adolescent. The Ask health diary was highly accepted by the students and teachers. There did not appear to be any increase in communication skills of the students after using the diary in the school for one term.Conclusion  The CHAP health review and Ask health diary have the potential to improve the health of adolescents with intellectual disability.

Background  People with intellectual disability who live in the community often have poor health and healthcare, partly as a consequence of poor communication, recall difficulties and incomplete patient health information.Materials and Methods  A cluster randomized‐controlled trial with 2 × 2 factorial design was conducted with adults with intellectual disability to investigate two interventions to enhance interactions among adults with intellectual disability, their care providers and general practitioners (GPs). The interventions were the Comprehensive Health Assessment Program (CHAP), a one‐off health review tool, and the Ask health diary, designed for ongoing use. Follow‐up was for 12 months post‐intervention. Evidence of health promotion, disease prevention and case‐finding activities were extracted from GPs clinical records.Results  Increased health promotion, disease prevention and case‐finding activity were found in the intervention groups using the CHAP. It had a positive impact on Pneumococcus vaccination (OR 7.4; 95% CI: 1.5–37.1), hearing testing (4.5; 1.9–10.7), Hepatitis A vaccinations (5.4; 1.8–16.3), vision testing (3.4; 1.4–8.3), and weight measurement (3.1; 1.5–6.4). There were no strong changes in the measured outcomes in the group who used the Ask health diary alone.Conclusions  The use of the CHAP increased health promotion, disease prevention and case‐finding activity in adults with intellectual disability living in the community and confirms the previously demonstrated benefits of the CHAP can be extended to less formal residential settings. The use of the Ask health diary did not improve the measured healthcare activity, at least in the short term, although it may contribute in other ways towards better health.