Are individuals with mental retardation at high risk for chronic disease?
OBJECTIVE
Family physicians are responsible for the health and illness care of individuals with mental retardation (MR) in many community practices. Therefore, it is important to determine the special disease patterns for this group. This study determined if individuals with MR are at increased risk for selected chronic diseases.


METHODS
We analyzed 366 individuals, living in the community, with a primary diagnosis of MR. The two comparison groups without MR were 427 individual Medicaid recipients and 746 privately insured individuals.


RESULTS
Individuals with MR had higher rates of neurophysical conditions (eg, seizures, central nervous system conditions, and sensory loss) compared to the other two groups. However, they had lower rates of some chronic conditions and health behaviors (eg, hypertension, migraines/chronic headaches, diabetes, depression or anxiety, obesity, substance abuse, and smoking) compared to other Medicaid and insured patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Individuals with MR have lower rates of many chronic conditions, compared with other Medicaid recipients. This finding should reduce concerns among family physicians that treatment of this special population involves higher rates of chronic illness.
McDermott
S
S
Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
Platt
T
T
Krishnaswami
S
S
D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications*; D008019:Life Style; D008484:Medicaid; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D014481:United States