Description:

The Follow-Up Study involves locating and interviewing a group of young adults who, as 10-year-old children, were included in the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Study, an investigation of the prevalence and risk factors for developmental disabilities that was conducted in the mid-1980s in metropolitan Atlanta. Altogether, there were 1,608 children identified with either mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, vision impairment, or hearing loss, and 650 comparison children free of any of those conditions. The purpose of the present effort is to assess the mortality experience and causes of death within the case group from age 10 to age 20 and to characterize the status of the survivors with respect to current health status, living arrangements, socialization, employment, quality of life, service utilization, and independence. The latter data will be collected by means of a structured questionnaire administered in-person to the young adults and/or their parents or legal guardians, depending on the degree of cognitive impairment of the young adult. The original comparison children will also be located and interviewed as a contrast group. Interviewing is underway and is expected to be completed by December 31, 1999.

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