TY - JOUR
T1 - Risk for Severe COVID-19 Outcomes among Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, the Netherlands
AU - Koks-Leensen, M.C.J.
AU - Schalk, B.W.M.
AU - van Gijssel, E.J.B.
AU - Timen, A.
AU - Naegele, M.E.
AU - van den Bemd, M.
AU - Leusink, G.L.
AU - Cuypers, M.
AU - Naaldenberg, J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw grant no. 641001100) and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport (grant no. 329574).
Funding Information:
We thank all the intellectual disability care organizations that participated in this registry for their commitment to accurately registering all cases in our database during an ongoing pandemic. We also thank the Academic Collaborative Sterker op Eigen Benen, the Vereniging Gehandicaptenzorg Nederland, and the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport for their collaboration in this project. This study was supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw grant no. 641001100) and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport (grant no. 329574).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately af-fected persons in long-term care, who often experience health disparities. To delineate the COVID-19 disease burden among persons with intellectual disabilities, we prospectively collected data from 36 care facilities for 3 pandemic waves during March 2020-May 2021. We in-cluded outcomes for 2,586 clients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, among whom 161 had severe illness and 99 died. During the first 2 pandemic waves, infection among persons with intellectual disabilities re-flected patterns observed in the general population, but case-fatality rates for persons with intellectual disabilities were 3.5 times higher and were elevated among those >40 years of age. Severe outcomes were associated with older age, having Down syndrome, and having >1 concurrent condition. Our study highlights the dispropor-tionate COVID-19 disease burden among persons with intellectual disabilities and the need for disability-inclusive research and policymaking to inform disease surveillance and public health policies for this population.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately af-fected persons in long-term care, who often experience health disparities. To delineate the COVID-19 disease burden among persons with intellectual disabilities, we prospectively collected data from 36 care facilities for 3 pandemic waves during March 2020-May 2021. We in-cluded outcomes for 2,586 clients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, among whom 161 had severe illness and 99 died. During the first 2 pandemic waves, infection among persons with intellectual disabilities re-flected patterns observed in the general population, but case-fatality rates for persons with intellectual disabilities were 3.5 times higher and were elevated among those >40 years of age. Severe outcomes were associated with older age, having Down syndrome, and having >1 concurrent condition. Our study highlights the dispropor-tionate COVID-19 disease burden among persons with intellectual disabilities and the need for disability-inclusive research and policymaking to inform disease surveillance and public health policies for this population.
KW - PEOPLE
U2 - 10.3201/eid2901.221346
DO - 10.3201/eid2901.221346
M3 - Article
C2 - 36573557
SN - 1080-6040
VL - 29
SP - 118
EP - 126
JO - Emerging Infectious Diseases
JF - Emerging Infectious Diseases
IS - 1
ER -