Analysis of Primary Care Data to Support the Work of the Independent Inquiry into Access to Healthcare for People with Learning Disabilities

The Independent Inquiry into Access to Healthcare for People with Learning Disabilities (LD) published in July 2008, commissioned the NHS Information Centre to conduct a study into analysing primary care data relating to healthcare for people with LD.

Using the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) the study analyses how GPs are recording Learning Disabilities (LD) on their computer systems and compares the demographics of patients with LD to the rest of the population. It then compares the provision of ill-health prevention advice and interventions and healthcare management between patients with LD and the patient population as a whole.

The study shows that access to and quality of health care for patients with LD is broadly similar to that of the general patient population for many of the conditions analysed. However, a number of issues are raised including:

• higher rates of obesity
• lower rates of contraceptive advice and smear tests
• higher rates of seizures amongst patients with epilepsy
• lower rates of antibiotic prescribing for patients diagnosed with urinary tract infection.

These may warrant further investigation.