Impact of the initial response to COVID 19 on long term care for people with intellectual disability: an interrupted time series analysis of incident reports
Abstract Background The lockdown measures in response to COVID 19 taken by long term care organisations might have impacted problem behaviour and behavioural functioning of people with intellectual disability. This study tested changes in reported incidents, in particular regarding aggression, unexplained absence and, for contrast, medication errors. Methods Metadata on weekly incident and near incident reports from 2016 to June 2020 involving over 14 000 clients with mild to serious intellectual disability of 's Heeren Loo, a long term care organisation for people with intellectual disability, were subjected to interrupted time series analysis, comparing the COVID 19 with the pre COVID 19 period. Results The imposition of lockdown measures coincided with a significant drop in incidents (total, P .001; aggression, P .008; unexplained absences, P .008; and medication errors, P .001) Incidents in total (P .001) and with aggression (P .001) then climbed from this initial low level, while medication errors remained stably low (P .94) Conclusion The rise in incidents involving aggression, against the background of generally lowered reporting, underlines the need for pandemic control measures that are suitable for people with intellectual disability in long term care.
Journal of intellectual disability research JIDR