Addressing health inequality experienced by people with intellectual disability: NHMRC Investigator Grant

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Overview

People with intellectual disability face stark health inequalities, often die prematurely from potentially avoidable causes, and experience poor access to preventative health care.

This project will find out why there are gaps in health care for people with intellectual disability, determine how these gaps affect people, and develop better responses in healthcare for people with intellectual disability. We will use linked data from a large sample of people with intellectual disability in NSW.

This NHMRC Investigator Grant was awarded to Professor Julian Trollor, with the funding commencing in 2022 and ending in 2026. 

Our research targets three critical domains:

1. Improving mental health.
2. Addressing physical health needs.
3. Addressing mortality and premature deaths.

1. Improving Mental Health

This domain aims to address the multiple barriers to effective mental health treatment for people with intellectual disability. We are investigating:

• Prevalence and predictors of mental illness in people with intellectual disability.
• Health service use, continuity of care, and associated costs.
• Impact of mental illness on physical health outcomes.
• Patterns and harms associated with psychotropic medication use.

2.    Addressing Physical Health Needs

This domain aims to reduce the stark physical health gap for people with intellectual disability, which includes multi-morbidity, early onset of frailty, and premature deaths. We are investigating:

• Access to preventative healthcare for people with intellectual disability and multiple complex needs.
• Drivers of potentially preventable hospitalisations.
• Frailty and its predictors, and optimising health trajectories.

3.    Addressing Mortality and Premature Deaths

This domain aims to address premature mortality and the high proportion of potentially avoidable deaths in people with intellectual disability. We are investigating mortality rates, risk factors and causes of death in people with intellectual disability and serious mental illnesses.

Significance and Impact

This research will build further evidence to help address health gaps, improve intellectual disability health care, and drive policy reforms.

Together with our interdisciplinary collaborations and partners, we look forward to driving improvements in health status and access to health supports for people with intellectual disability in Australia.

Lived experience involvement

This project actively engages people with intellectual disability to evaluate the relevance of our research questions and aims, provide input on next steps in light of the results, and develop accessible summaries.