2022 LeDeR report into the avoidable deaths of people with learning disabilities (published November 2023)

Summary

The 2022 LeDeR report seeks to investigate and learn from the avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability in England. The report, which is produced for NHS England, was led by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, the University of Central Lancashire, and Kingston University London.

Researchers found:

• gentle but continuous improvement in the median age of death for people with a learning disability in 2022. In 2018, the median age of death for adults with a learning disability was 61.8 years but has since risen to 62.9 in 2022. If children are included, the age at death increased from 60.1 years in 2018 to 62.7 in 2022.
• a drop in the number of avoidable deaths since 2021 – 42% of deaths were deemed “avoidable” for people with a learning disability in 2022 compared to 50% in 2021.
• a sharp drop in the number of deaths due to Covid-19 – from 24% of all causes of death in 2020 to 19% in 2021 and 6% in 2022 for adults with a learning disability.

"While there are positives, it’s also clear that more work still needs to be done. People from ethnic minority groups died younger, and there is a need to improve access to care pathways to improve prevention and better manage some conditions in people with a learning disability, such as cancer, lung, heart and circulatory conditions. We also identified a concerning effect on excess deaths of people with a learning disability during heatwaves. This means care homes and hospitals looking after people with a learning disability need to be better prepared for weather events in the light of climate change. Improvements during 2022 should certainly be celebrated, but we shouldn’t overlook how much we still don’t know."

Professor Andre Strydom, Chief Investigator and Professor in Intellectual Disabilities at King’s IoPPN.

Read the full report via the link below.