Testing a Wellness Indicators Measure for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities^a

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often have health and wellness issues that are not as good as people without disabilities. States are required to monitor health and wellness for people with IDD who use many disability services. However, there are few ways to monitor wellness between states or at different points in time. In this study, we share a new model that states may use to monitor wellness of people with IDD.

We used data from a survey called the National Core Indicators (NCI) to develop this model. First, we developed the model using our state's data. Then, after we found a model that worked well, we tested that model using the National Core Indicators from the entire U.S.

Our final model worked well in both our state NCI data and the national NCI data. This is important because policies at both levels can affect the services that people with disabilities can use. Our model had three parts: heart health, mental health, and behavioral wellness. These are described more in the paper. We also used statistics to test some factors that might predict outcomes related to heart health, mental health, and behavioral wellness. Age, sex, where someone lives, and level of intellectual disability were all good predictors of all three categories of wellness that we studied.

The model of wellness that we developed worked well but should be tested using data from other individual states. It is very important to know about health and wellness right now since the services people with disabilities can use are changing in many states. We think our model can help planners and advocates understand how services affect wellness in a way that is easy to compare from state to state and at different points in time.