Health Disparities and Intellectual Disabilities

Mission and Impact

 This project informed efforts to (a) improve the capacity of current health surveillance systems to track the health and healthcare of people with intellectual disabilities and (b) increase the effectiveness of health-related practices, services, and programs that influence the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.

Activities

1. Identify the set of valid and reliable data sources that maximize the quality of information (e.g., population-based statistics and research findings), given the needs of the target audience (i.e., public health practitioners, administrators, and researchers) and the strengths and weaknesses of existing data.
2. Using administrative claims data, identify an array of key variables to facilitate the study of the factors associated with disparities between the populations with and without intellectual disabilities.
3. Develop and estimate empirical models that identify the factors associated with disparities between the populations with and without intellectual disabilities.
4. Disseminate the results of our activities to public health practitioners, administrators, and researchers (i.e., the projects target audience) in a manner that facilitates their efforts to reduce health disparities between people with and without intellectual disabilities and improve data collection.