Nearly three months after the arrival of long-awaited health care reform, many people are not sure how things will change. In May 2010, 44 percent of Americans reported being confused about it, and more than a third of the public do not understand how the new law will affect them and their families.1 The Patient […]
As part of a women’s health center project, we reviewed 16 years of research to examine health disparities between women with and without disabilities. We reviewed MEDLINE-indexed articles between 1990 and 2005 with data on women with and without physical, sensory, intellectual, developmental, or psychiatric disabilities. Our review found few articles examining health disparities in […]
Tobacco use exerts a huge toll on persons with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders, accounting for 200,000 of the annual 443,000 annual tobacco-related deaths in the United States. Persons with chronic mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population does, and smoking is the major contributor to that premature mortality. This population […]
People with developmental disabilities have been historically excluded from mainstream society. Using the strength-based perspective, volunteerism was explored among homeless persons with self-reported developmental disabilities. It was hypothesized that volunteerism would be associated with indicators of healthy community integration. This would include volunteerism associated with unemployment due to disposable time and desire to gain job-related […]
Importance of the field: Patients with a psychiatric diagnosis have a higher prevalence of smoking compared to the general population. Varenicline is a first-line pharmacotherapy option to assist in smoking cessation. Clinical trials during drug development excluded patients with active psychiatric illnesses leaving the risks associated with varenicline use in this patient population unknown. Areas […]
The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center: Health and Wellness (www.ohsu.edu/oidd/rrtc/index.cfm ) at Oregon Institute on Disability and Development (OIDD) is launching several projects, and Amy Cline, MPH, Dissemination Coordinator withRRTC, is charged with disseminating them. The center promotes the health and wellness of people with disabilities through research, training, technical assistance and dissemination focused on three important […]
OBJECTIVES: We used a life course approach to assess the ways in which childhood socioeconomic position may be associated with disability in later life. METHODS: We used longitudinal data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (1998-2006) to examine associations between parental education, paternal occupation, and disabilities relating to activities of daily living (ADLs) […]
Approximately 4.5 million Americans have an intellectual or developmental disability. Concern is increasing about these individuals’ nutrition-related behavior and its implications for their health. This article reports on a systematic search of the current literature listed in the PsycINFO and PubMed databases related to nutritional status of adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The authors […]
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Although few tobacco control efforts target individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, this population may be especially vulnerable to the deleterious effects of tobacco use and dependence. Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities suffer from the health, financial, and stigmatizing effects of […]
Housing and services for persons with developmental disabilities (DD) have been shaped by the normalization approach, a commitment to full integration within the general community. In contrast, housing and services for persons with psychiatric disabilities (PD) have had various and sometimes conflicting goals, including provision of custodial care, promotion of therapeutic community, and community integration. […]