Publication, Part of Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities

Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities, Experimental Statistics 2022 to 2023

Experimental statistics, Other reports and statistics, Official statistics in development

Publication Date:: 7 Dec 2023
Geographic Coverage:: England
Geographical Granularity:: Regions, Sub-Integrated Care Boards
Date Range:: 01 Apr 2022 to 31 Mar 2023

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Data Quality Notice

NHS England had identified an issue with the data for the following indicator which was reported in the Interactive Visualisation Tool and the data csv file for this publication:

LDOB080 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s Learning Disabilities Register aged 14 years or over who have received an annual learning disability health check and have been provided with a health action plan, as at the end of the reporting period.

The proportion of people on the learning disability register with a heath check and health action plan was lower than expected. We have investigated the issue and found an error in the data extraction. We have therefore removed LDOB080 from the published Power BI and csv files for years 2019-20 through to 2024-25. An alternative source of this data is available for this indicator and we recommend that you refer to the Learning Disability Health Check Scheme publication for March 2023: Learning Disabilities Health Check Scheme - NHS England Digital

13 May 2026 16:49 PM

Summary

The aim of this publication is to provide information about the key differences in healthcare between people with a learning disability and those without. It contains aggregated data on key health issues for people who are recorded by their GP as having a learning disability, and comparative data about a control group who are not recorded by their GP as having a learning disability.

Six new indicators were introduced in the 2022-23 reporting year for patients with and without a recorded learning disability. These relate to:

• Patients with an eating disorder

• Patients with both an eating disorder and autism diagnosis

• Patients with a diagnosis of autism who are currently treated with antidepressants

More information on these changes can be found in the Data Quality section of this publication. Data has been collected from participating practices using EMIS and Cegedim Healthcare Systems GP systems.

Highlights

England, 2022-23

Key Facts

Coverage

55.1% of patients registered in England in 2022-23 were included in this publication.

Learning disability prevalence

0.5% of the patients included in this publication were recorded by their GP as having a learning disability in 2022-23.

Autism prevalence

The percentage of patients who have a learning disability and an autism diagnosis has had a statistically significant increase each year from 21.4% in 2017-18 to 32.4% in 2022-23.

The percentage of patients without a learning disability who have a diagnosis of autism has increased from 0.5% to 1.0% over the same period.

Health checks

79.8% of patients with a learning disability had a Learning Disability Health Check in 2022-23, a statistically significant increase from 71.8% in 2021-22.

Learning disability and ADHD prevalence

The percentage of patients who have a learning disability and an ADHD diagnosis has had a statistically significant increase each year from 5.5% in 2017-18 to 8.6% in 2022-23.

The percentage of patients without a learning disability who have a diagnosis of ADHD has increased from 0.52% to 0.99% over the same period.

Prescribing - antipsychotics

The percentage of patients with a learning disability who were prescribed antipsychotics has decreased each year from 15.5% in 2017-18 to 14.4% in 2022-23, with a statistically significant decrease between 2017-18 and 2022-23.

The percentage of patients without a learning disability who were prescribed antipsychotics has remained stable at 0.9% over the same period.

Prescribing - antidepressants

2.4% of patients with both a learning disability and autism diagnosis were treated with antidepressants in 2022-23. The percentage of patients without a learning disability but with an autism diagnosis and treated with antidepressants was 0.1% in the same period.

Learning disabilities and Down syndrome prevalence

The percentage of patients with a learning disability and a Down syndrome diagnosis has decreased each year from 13.9% in 2017-18 to 11.0% in 2022-23.