A cluster analysis of support networks of older people with severe intellectual impairment

The report describes the results of a demographic survey of people with severe intellectual impairment over 50 years of age living in a single Metropolitan Borough (popn. 220,000) in the U.K. The survey sought to collect comprehensive information on a relatively small group of individuals, rather than covering a larger population in less depth, and which enabled the resulting analysis to elicit the complex patterns of interaction which exist between service/informal support variables and variables describing characteristics of the clients themselves. Using a multivariate technique, it was possible to determine the overall structure of the data set, and to observe the significance of age and measures of functional ability within this overall structure. Apart from a number of variables which appeared to be relatively independent, seven clusters were identified, corresponding to a number of important domains within the lives of these individuals. The clusters related to (a) contact with relatives, (b) community activities, (c) community independence, (d) friendship, (e) service pathways, (f) geriatics/mobility, (g) physical treatment. Subsequent factor analysis of selected variables confirmed the existence of these clusters, and made it possible via the use of factor scores to assess the magnitude of the relationships between client descriptor variables (age and function) and the clusters in which they occurred.