UOIT faculty member co-authors atlas on health-care quality for adults with developmental disabilities

A University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) faculty member has contributed to research that shines light on the challenges Ontario adults with developmental disabilities like autism and Down syndrome face when accessing health-care services.

Dr. Robert Balogh, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, was one of 13 authors who contributed to the Atlas on the Primary Care of Adults with Developmental Disabilities in Ontario, published December 5. The largest study of its kind, the atlas was based on health-care data collected by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), and research conducted by the Health Care Access Research and Developmental Disabilities (H-CARDD) team. The lead researcher, Dr. Yona Lunsky, is a psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services and the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care also collaborated on the project.

The H-CARDD team took some of the indicators used when researching health care for the general population, and applied them to study the quality of health care for more than 66,000 adults with developmental disabilities under age 65 in Ontario.

“In some cases, we found some pretty striking disparities between what is happening in the general public with regard to quality of health care, compared to what is happening in the population with developmental disabilities,” said Dr. Balogh, H-CARDD team member, the primary author of the chapter on chronic disease management and co-author of five other chapters.

Findings of the study show that adults with developmental disabilities:

• live in poorer neighbourhoods
• have higher rates of physical and mental health problems than other Ontario adults
• receive multiple medications for their health issues, which may not be well monitored
• are less likely to undergo recommended cancer screenings such as mammograms
• are four to five  times more likely to  be hospitalized, even for preventable conditions such as asthma and diabetes

In general, the study found that health care for adults with developmental disabilities was not consistent with recommended health-care guidelines.

H-CARDD researchers are not yet sure why disparities such as these exist; that’s the next step in the research process. However, they can formulate some hypotheses. According to Dr. Balogh, the disparities could be attributed to a number of factors:

• low income
• doctors’ lack of time
• communication challenges
• lack of collaboration and coordination between services

Dr. Balogh points to a large gap in health and health service research since the process of deinstitutionalization started decades ago. “In institutions, people with developmental disabilities had congregant living, and the quality of life was terrible; most of their health care was provided on the premises,” he explained. “When individuals with developmental disabilities were deinstitutionalized, their quality of life increased tremendously, but we have no idea if the community-based services, doctors and other health professionals were ready for it. Now that people with developmental disabilities are living in the community, we need to find out if they are receiving adequate health care. That is what this whole project is all about.”

Researchers are recommending strategies to enhance the overall health and wellbeing of individuals with developmental disabilities. They include:

• Enabling primary-care providers to more easily offer guideline-recommended care
• Addressing the broader health system issues and pathways to care
• Providing individuals with developmental disabilities, their families and paid staff with the tools they need to be active partners in care

Download the executive summary or the full report.