Poster 12: Stay well and healthy! An in-home preventive health care program for persons aging with developmental disability

Objective: To pilot an intervention to prevent functional decline and health problems among persons with intellectual and developmental disability aging in the community. Design: Pilot for a large randomized trial. Setting: Private residences and group homes. Participants: 201 adults with intellectual and developmental disability, aged 32 years and older, were randomly assigned to an advance practice nurse (APN) intervention (n=101) or health-risk appraisal and feedback only (HRA) intervention (n=100). Interventions: The APN group received in-home multidimensional assessment, targeted recommendations, and quarterly follow-up visits for up to 1 year. The HRA group received an in-home interview with written feedback. Main Outcome Measures: Health, functional status, and risks; use of acute medical services; and feasibility assessment. Results: Assessment tools and interventions were demonstrated to be feasible in a population with mild to moderate intellectual and developmental disability. Recruitment and randomization were successful (avg age, 41y; 52% men). High levels of health risks were identified (mean, 7.6; range, 1-20y); 23.4% reported “fair” or “poor” general health; 16.4% reported probable depression; 34.5% reported recent falls; 36.8% reported fair or poor oral health; and 32.7% reported pain moderate or worse. Conclusion: Interventions are feasible for trials in this population and have broad applicability to other populations aging with disability.