Caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues for women with intellectual disabilities

Lan-Ping Lin,Fu-Gong Lin,Shang-Wei Hsu,Wu-Chien Chien,Jin-Ding Lin,Chia-Im Lai,Ching-Hui Loh,Pei-Ying Lin

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-59

Abstract

BackgroundLimited attention has been paid to the issue of reproductive health as it affects women with intellectual disabilities, despite reproductive health being a vital issue in public health policy for women in the general population. This paper describes caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues relative to women with intellectual disabilities who are being cared for in welfare institutions in Taiwan.MethodsThe study employed a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study which recruited 1,152 caregivers (response rate = 71.87%) from 32 registered disability welfare institutions in Taiwan. We classified their understanding/awareness of reproductive health issues into four domains: menstrual (1) and menopause (2) issues, sex education (3), and reproductive health services (4). Each domain had five associated yes/no questions and the total score for the four domains was out of a maximum of 20. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 software.ResultsWe found that most of the caregivers were familiar with matters concerning sex education, menopause, and reproductive health services, but they lacked adequate understanding of issues associated with menstruation in women with ID. Many aspects of reproductive health such as "menstrual pain", "age at menarche", "masturbation", "diet during perimenopause", and "publicly available reproductive health services" were issues in which caregivers lacked adequate knowledge and required further instruction. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female caregivers with a university degree, and those who had experience assisting with reproductive health care were more inclined to have higher reproductive health awareness scores than their counterparts.ConclusionsThis study highlights that service providers should offer appropriate reproductive health education to institutional caregivers, and that more attention be focused on the personal experiences and concerns of intellectually disabled women in future research.

Highlights

Limited attention has been paid to the issue of reproductive health as it affects women with intellectual disabilities, despite reproductive health being a vital issue in public health policy for women in the general population
Many studies have highlighted that women with intellectual disabilities (ID) generally receive inadequate counseling to deal with their reproductive health care, and caregivers often lacked the competence to deal with these events when they occur [6,7]
McCarthy and Millard [8] suggested that research is required to establish if there are any particular aspects of appropriate reproductive health care for people with ID, with respect to the attitudes of their primary caregivers

Summary

Introduction

Limited attention has been paid to the issue of reproductive health as it affects women with intellectual disabilities, despite reproductive health being a vital issue in public health policy for women in the general population. This paper describes caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues relative to women with intellectual disabilities who are being cared for in welfare institutions in Taiwan. There is general consensus in the healthcare community concerning the need for defined policies and services aimed at reproductive health for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). Caregivers are the front-line workers for individuals with ID; they play a vital role in the provision of reproductive health care to individuals with ID, and their attitudes no doubt affect the quality of service provided to this group. The purpose of the present study is to describe caregivers’ awareness of reproductive health issues with respect to women with ID who are being cared for in welfare institutions

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion