Quality of life beyond diagnosis in intellectual disability-Latent profiling

Objective: To compare quality of life (QOL) across diagnoses associated with intellectual disability, construct QOL profiles and evaluate membership by diagnostic group, function and comorbidities.Method: Primary caregivers of 526 children with intellectual disability (age 5-18 years) and a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, CDKL5 deficiency dis-order or Rett syndrome completed the Quality of Life Inventory-Disability (QI-Disability) ques-tionnaire. Latent profile analysis of the QI-Disability domain scores was conducted.Results: The mean (SD) total QOL score was 67.8 (13.4), ranging from 60.3 (14.6) for CDD to 77.5 (11.7) for Down syndrome. Three classes describing domain scores were identified: Class 1 was characterised by higher domain scores overall but poorer negative emotions scores; Class 2 by average to high scores for most domains but low independence scores; and Class 3 was charac-terised by low positive emotions, social interaction, and leisure and the outdoors scores, and extremely low independence scores. The majority of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome belonged to Class 1 and the majority with CDKL5 deficiency disorder belonged to Class 3. Those with better functional abilities (verbal communication and indepen-dent walking were predominately members of Class 1 and those with frequent seizures were more often members of Class 2 and 3.Conclusion: The profiles illustrated variation in QOL across a diverse group of children. QOL evaluations illustrate areas where interventions could improve QOL and provide advice to fam-ilies as to where efforts may be best directed.

Automated summary

This study compares the quality of life among different diagnoses associated with intellectual disability, constructs quality of life profiles, and evaluates membership by diagnostic group, function, and comorbidities. The results show variations in quality of life across different diagnostic groups, suggesting interventions can be targeted at improving emotional well-being, social interaction, and independence to enhance quality of life.