Importance of Preventive health Care for children of mothers with intellectual or developmental disabilities

Routine well-child checkups and vaccinations are part of preventive healthcare for kids. However, the care gets more difficult for women with physical, sensory, intellectual, or developmental challenges. The current study was aimed to investigate whether children of mothers with physical, sensory, or intellectual/developmental disabilities experience barriers to preventive health care, compared to children of mothers without disabilities.

The current study included children born between 2012 and 2019. And it compared children of mothers with physical (n = 74,084), sensory (n = 26,532), intellectual or developmental (n = 1,391) disabilities, multiple disabilities (n = 5,774), and no disabilities (n = 723,442). Routine immunizations throughout the first two years of life and the frequency of well-child visits were the primary outcomes while secondary outcomes included Any developmental screen and the improved 18-month developmental assessment

The results demonstrated the following:

·        Children of mothers with intellectual or developmental disabilities significantly received lesser number of the recommended well-child visits (56.3% vs 63.2%), routine immunizations (43.8% vs 53.7%), the enhanced 18-month developmental assessment (52.3% vs 60.8%), or any developmental screen (54.9% vs 62.5%;) compared to children of mothers without disabilities.

·        No significant disparities were observed for children of mothers with other types of disabilities.

 Thus, the study highlighted the need for resources and interventions to improve access to preventive health care for young children of mothers with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Source: Brown HK, Taylor C, Camden A, Lunsky Y, Vigod S, Santiago M, Fung K, Cohen E, Guttmann A, Telner D, Ray J, Zwicker J, Saunders N. Maternal Disability and Early Child Preventive Care. Pediatrics. 2024 Oct 1;154(4):e2024066069. doi: 10.1542/peds.2024-066069. PMID: 39308313.