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Background While the United States has seen increased attention by policymakers on the rights of parents with disabilities, there is limited understanding of the health and economic well-being of parents with intellectual impairments. This study compares the health and economic well-being of mothers with and without intellectual impairments. Methods This descriptive, exploratory study is a secondary analysis of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. This study includes a subsample of mothers of three-year-old children ( n = 1561), including mothers with intellectual impairments ( n = 263) and without intellectual impairments ( n = 1298). Results US Mothers with intellectual impairments are more likely to report serious health conditions, have less instrumental support, live in poverty, receive public benefits and experience certain material hardships. Conclusion Findings from this study indicate the need for policies and programmes to support parents with intellectual impairments by addressing their health and economic needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a critical need for objective data about receipt of preventive healthcare screenings that are not subject to self-response bias. However, no available evidence indicates which methods are effective for obtaining retrospective medical record data for women with intellectual disabilities ( ID) receiving care in the community. This article describes a procedure for obtaining retrospective medical record data for 199 women with ID who took part in a community-based, multisite, randomized controlled trial of a health education intervention. Data were analyzed to determine rates of correct physician identification and physician response rates during the 2006-2009 study periods. To assess accuracy in identifying physicians and response rates over time, Mc Nemar's test of paired proportions for dependent samples was used. Physician identification varied over time with correct identification being highest in more recent years. The majority of practices responded to our requests for medical record data; however, response rates and item completion rates were highest for the most recent data, with rates declining significantly for data from earlier years. Obtaining retrospective medical record data from community-based medical practices is possible, but difficult. Therefore, researchers should budget resources to accommodate a lengthy process with extensive follow-up. Researchers interested in older medical data face additional challenges in obtaining complete records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]