Covid-19 diagnoses and vaccinations among people with intellectual disabilities compared to the general population (IDcare)
IASSIDD 2024 - Chicago (USA), August 5-8 2024
Anna Axmon, Jimmie Kristensson, Magnus Sandberg
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Due to changes in the definition of the gPop cohort, the numbers below and in the presentation differ slightly from those that were provided in the book of abstracts.
Background: People with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience barriers to health care, which may have been particularly relevant during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Methods: In this register-based study, we identified all people living in Skåne (southernmost region of Sweden) on January 1st, 2014. People with ID (F7) or Down Syndrome (Q90), or service and support for people with ID or autism spectrum disorder, comprised the ID cohort (n=14 716), those with a family member in the ID cohort were excluded, leaving the remainder to the general population cohort (n=1 232 299). Covid-19 diagnoses were assessed as none, not virus identified (U07.2), or virus identified (U07.1). People with both U07.1 and U07.2 diagnoses were included in the virus identified group. Vaccination data were obtained from the Public Health Agency of Sweden (PHA). Relative risks (RRs) were estimated using Poisson regression.
Findings: Covid-19 was more commonly diagnosed among people with ID than in the general population (17% vs 12%; RR 1.44). The risk varied between age groups, with the highest risk for the ID cohort found among older people (RR 2.68) and the lowest among adolescents (RR 0.99). The risk was slightly higher among women than among men (RR 1.52 and 1.41, respectively). The prevalence of U07.2 was similar in the two cohorts (8% vs 9%), but U07.1 was three times higher among people with ID (9% vs 3%). Vaccinations were slightly less common in the ID cohort than in the gPop cohort (71% vs 74%; RR 0.97).
Conclusions: Restrictions on activities for people with ID during the pandemic period did not protect this group from being infected with Covid-19 to a higher degree than people in the general population. Moreover, although the PHA identified people with ID as a high-risk group to be prioritized for vaccination, fewer people with ID received the vaccine.
Research group
Associate professor Magnus Sandberg (PI for IDcare)
Associate professor Anna Axmon (PI for the covid follow-up study)
Professor Ulf Gerdtham
Associate professor Jimmie Kristensson
Collaborations
Ass prof Julia Bahner, Lund University, Sweden
Dr Trine Lise Bakken, Oslo University Hospital, Norway [prevalence of schizophrenia]
Dr Petra Björne, City of Malmö, Sweden
Prof Darren Chadwick, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Prof David Edvardsson, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia [dementia]
Prof Kristina Edvardsson, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia [pregnancy outcomes]
Dr Karin Engström, Lund University, Sweden
Dr Hanna Falk Erhag, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Dr Alessandra Grotta, Stockholm University, Sweden
Ass prof Björn Hofvander, Lund University, Sweden
Prof Silke Kern, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Dr Katarina Lauruschkus, Lund University, Sweden
Dr Can Liu, Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Prof Yona Lunsky, University of Toronto, Canada
Ass prof Hugo Lövheim, Umeå University, Sweden [dementia]
Dr Emilie Stroh, Lund University, Sweden [care transitioning] [diabetes]