ABSTRACT
Research on ageing and intellectual disability has shown that people with intellectual disability do not necessarily age earlier than the general population – at least on the level of genetic processes regulating repair of DNA damage – but they often display many adverse health issues at an earlier age. The concept of frailty, developed by geriatric researchers, offers insights into reasons for such adverse health outcomes and may show how such issues can avoided or at least delayed. This chapter outlines four key recommendations about how such delays might be achieved and thus structurally improves the public health of people with intellectual disabilities. It argues that although unfavourable health conditions of people with intellectual disabilities cannot be prevented, and although on average they will remain more vulnerable than other people, there are still plenty of ways to delay early frailty in people with intellectual disability and thus increase their quality of life in old age.
