This study explored the effect of a health check on the quality of life of patients with intellectual disabilities, perceived health of patients and careers and career stress. Quality of life indicators included abilities, challenging behaviour, mental health, community participation and involvement in activity. A primary care identified population of 190 people with intellectual disabilities and their carers was divided into two groups. Quality of life data were collected at baseline, once for the experimental group and twice for the control group, after a six-month period to control for extraneous variables. Health checks were conducted for all subjects by primary care teams and post-intervention data were collected four months later. Data were also examined to investigate whether residence type, subject characteristics or health needs being identified influenced any intervention effect. Little impact was evident on any of the variables measured, although family home subjects and carers of subjects without challenging behaviour reported a reduction in levels of strain at post intervention. Despite the limited intervention impact on quality of life, the health checks identified a range of health needs ranging from impacted earwax to breast cancer. In the light of these findings, the use of standardised quality of life scales to measure effects of changes in individuals' health status is discussed. The health needs identified at the health check highlighted the importance of conducting health promotion with this population, and recommendations are given for strategic use of health checks as one component of the health promotion measures used within primary care.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:583661 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Baxter, Helen |
| Publisher | Cardiff University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://orca.cf.ac.uk/55987/ |
Page generated in 0.0216 seconds