The latest version of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) report, covering 2019, has been published by the University of Bristol. It makes for somber reading, and highlights the many health inequalities faced by people with learning disabilities.
Key facts:
- 44% of people with learning disabilities who died in 2019 died from an avoidable medical cause, and were twice as likely to as people in the general population who died in 2019 (22%). This refers to causes of death that could have been prevented by timely public health interventions to prevent an injury or illness in the first place, or by medical interventions that could prevent a person from dying from an injury or illness.
- 34% of people with learning disabilities who died in 2019 died from a cause that is considered treatable with access to timely and effective healthcare, compared to just 8% of the general population. People with learning disabilities are four times as likely to die from treatable causes as people without learning disabilities.
- The median age of death for people with learning disabilities is 59 years for females and 60 for males. For the general population, it is 86 years for females and 83 for males. This means that, on average, the life of a woman with a learning disability is 27 years shorter than a woman without a learning disability. For men, the difference is 22 years.
You can read the full report (available in Easy Read) at this link: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/leder/resources/annual-reports/