The Health Status Profile of Persons with Intellectual Disability in Institutions in Taiwan

Background: The aim of the present study was to describe the health status profile of persons with intellectual disability to identify their health care needs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was employed by conducting a structured questionnaire survey to collect data of 1,390 persons with intellectual disability who were cared for in 30 institutions in Taiwan. Results: The results showed that nearly half of the persons with intellectual disability were multiple disabilities and 63% had other impairments also. The illness prevalence was 41%, epilepsy and psychosis were the most prevalent diseases. A significant proportion 39.5% of people with intellectual disability needed to take medicine regularly in their daily living, the main diseases or disorders were epilepsy and psychosis. Conclusions: Given the lack of health care service literature on people with intellectual disability in Taiwan, this study represents one of the first health needs approaches to this population. The findings have great implications for policy development in health care services for people with intellectual disability.

並列關鍵字

health profile ； institution ； intellectual disability ； Taiwan

國際替代計量

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