ABSTRACT
This chapter examines age-related frailty in people with intellectual disabilities. More specifically it asks whether it is feasible to measure frailty in older adults with intellectual disability and if so, how frail older people with intellectual disability are in comparison to older people in the general population. Frailty has been defined as a state of increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes in elderly people. This chapter argues that frailty starts earlier and is more severe in people with intellectual disabilities than in the general population, but the consequences for health outcomes, care, and dependency are often quite similar. Moreover, in people with intellectual disability, congenital problems, and comorbidity are likely to lay a basis for later frailty with limited opportunity for prevention. As such, this chapter suggests that frailty will become an increasingly important healthcare concern and, left unaddressed, will lead to increased healthcare costs while also impacting on the quality of life for older people with intellectual disabilities.
