Abstract
Background and Objectives Individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) experience worse health outcomes compared with peers without a disability partly due to difficulties accessing age-appropriate health care. Provider discomfort with interacting and caring for individuals with IDD is a primary barrier to accessing care. The objectives of this study were to describe resident physicians' education, experiences, and comfort levels regarding individuals with IDD and to identify predictors of higher comfort levels with this patient population.
Methods In this cross-sectional study, we surveyed medical trainees in 7 residency programs in Boston, Massachusetts on their education, experiences, and comfort levels regarding individuals with IDD. The comfort level was assessed directly on a 6-point Likert scale. The relationship between comfort regarding people with IDD and several candidate explanatory variables was explored with Spearman and partial Spearman correlations (rs).
Results The estimated survey response rate was 49%. Of 423 resident physicians included in the study, 96% reported they had treated a patient with IDD, while only 25% reported having formal education on caring for this population. On a scale of 1–6, with higher numbers corresponding to greater comfort, the mean comfort level treating individuals with IDD was 3.73 (CI 3.61–3.85). In bivariant analyses, the amount of prior experience with people with IDD had a moderate, positive correlation with increased comfort levels treating individuals with IDD (rs = 0.42, p < 0.01). The following characteristics had a weak, positive correlation with increased comfort levels: training in a pediatric-focused residency specialty (rs = 0.18, p < 0.01), number of hours of formal education on caring for people with IDD (rs = 0.15, p < 0.01), and age (rs = 0.12, p = 0.03). Only the amount of prior experience with this patient population remained positively correlated with higher comfort levels when the other variables were controlled for (rs = 0.38, p < 0.01).
Discussion Prior experience with individuals with IDD predicted higher comfort levels with this population. This study supports the need for increased opportunities for medical trainees to engage with people with IDD to improve resident physicians' comfort caring for this patient population.
Glossary
- IDD=
- intellectual and/or developmental disability;
- IDP=
- Interaction with Disabled Persons;
- PGY=
- postgraduate year;
- REDCap=
- Research Electronic Data Capture
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org/NE for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Submitted and externally peer reviewed. The handling editor was Roy Strowd III, MD, MEd, MS.
- Received April 13, 2022.
- Accepted in final form December 2, 2022.
- © 2023 American Academy of Neurology
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
If you are uploading a letter concerning an article:
You must have updated your disclosures within six months: http://submit.neurology.org
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
