Publication, Part of Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities

Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities, Experimental Statistics 2022 to 2023

Experimental statistics, Other reports and statistics, Official statistics in development

Publication Date:: 7 Dec 2023
Geographic Coverage:: England
Geographical Granularity:: Regions, Sub-Integrated Care Boards
Date Range:: 01 Apr 2022 to 31 Mar 2023

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6 December 2024 10:30 AM

Summary

The aim of this publication is to provide information about the key differences in healthcare between people with a learning disability and those without. It contains aggregated data on key health issues for people who are recorded by their GP as having a learning disability, and comparative data about a control group who are not recorded by their GP as having a learning disability.

Six new indicators were introduced in the 2022-23 reporting year for patients with and without a recorded learning disability. These relate to:

• Patients with an eating disorder

• Patients with both an eating disorder and autism diagnosis

• Patients with a diagnosis of autism who are currently treated with antidepressants

More information on these changes can be found in the Data Quality section of this publication. Data has been collected from participating practices using EMIS and Cegedim Healthcare Systems GP systems.

Highlights

England, 2022-23

Key Facts

Coverage

55.1% of patients registered in England in 2022-23 were included in this publication.

Learning disability prevalence

0.5% of the patients included in this publication were recorded by their GP as having a learning disability in 2022-23.

Autism prevalence

The percentage of patients who have a learning disability and an autism diagnosis has had a statistically significant increase each year from 21.4% in 2017-18 to 32.4% in 2022-23.

The percentage of patients without a learning disability who have a diagnosis of autism has increased from 0.5% to 1.0% over the same period.

Health checks

79.8% of patients with a learning disability had a Learning Disability Health Check in 2022-23, a statistically significant increase from 71.8% in 2021-22.

Learning disability and ADHD prevalence

The percentage of patients who have a learning disability and an ADHD diagnosis has had a statistically significant increase each year from 5.5% in 2017-18 to 8.6% in 2022-23.

The percentage of patients without a learning disability who have a diagnosis of ADHD has increased from 0.52% to 0.99% over the same period.

Prescribing - antipsychotics

The percentage of patients with a learning disability who were prescribed antipsychotics has decreased each year from 15.5% in 2017-18 to 14.4% in 2022-23, with a statistically significant decrease between 2017-18 and 2022-23.

The percentage of patients without a learning disability who were prescribed antipsychotics has remained stable at 0.9% over the same period.

Prescribing - antidepressants

2.4% of patients with both a learning disability and autism diagnosis were treated with antidepressants in 2022-23. The percentage of patients without a learning disability but with an autism diagnosis and treated with antidepressants was 0.1% in the same period.

Learning disabilities and Down syndrome prevalence

The percentage of patients with a learning disability and a Down syndrome diagnosis has decreased each year from 13.9% in 2017-18 to 11.0% in 2022-23.