Health and Wellness Among Persons Ageing with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Research has shown that older people with positive attitudes towards ageing have better physical and cognitive health outcomes. But successful ageing is far from a universal experience in practice, with variance associated with socio-economic factors. This chapter uses a social determinants of health lens to analyse the health and well-being of people ageing with intellectual disability. It argues that the social determinants model facilitates a broader understanding of the contributors to health for adults ageing with an intellectual disability. In particular, the chapter shows that people with disabilities experience higher rates of common health conditions; poorer health outcomes; and restrictions to timely access to effective health care. Over a life course perspective, the cumulative effects these inequalities compound over time, which essentially means that for people with intellectual disabilities such health inequalities begin earlier in their lives, and the cumulative effects have a greater impact on most as they get older.