Do men and women with intellectual disabilities understand death?

BACKGROUND

Individuals with ID are often withheld information about the death of their loved ones as it has often been thought that they do not understand death or cannot grieve. This grief exacerbates the stress of individuals with ID as they often encounter secondary losses such as transitioning to a care facility. The aim of this study is to investigate men and women with ID understanding death concepts and to what extent.

METHOD

Adopting a stratified random sampling method, 156 Chinese people with ID were invited to join the study. One hundred and ten participants were interviewed using simple death related vignettes expanding upon and replicating a published study carried out in Ireland. The understanding of the five death concepts: causality, irreversibility, nonfunctionality, universality and inevitability was examined. The correlates of demographics, bereavement experiences and comprehension were explored.

RESULTS

The majority of the participants did understand concepts such as death is irreversible and that the deceased no longer function. One third of the participants understood causality and the universality of death. One fifth understood the inevitability of death. Previous bereavement experiences were correlated with higher understanding. Communication and community skills were correlated with all concepts of death except universality.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate that individuals with ID do have a partial to full understanding of the concepts of death. The culture of Hong Kong is one that considers death to be a taboo or unlucky subject. Therefore, the results mirror the the lack of understanding of universality and inevitability concepts as it is forbidden to speak of these concepts. An open and honest environment is encouraged to educate individuals with ID about death and bereavement.

Analysis of B-6 vitamers in human milk by reverse-phase liquid chromatography

A simple, accurate reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RPLC) method was introduced for the analysis of B-6 vitamers in human milk. The assay consisted of a phosphate buffer (pH 2.9) delivered isocratically through 5 micron ODS column packing, followed by post-column bisulfite derivatization to enhance the detection of PLP (and to a minor extent PL). The vitamers were detected using a fluorescence spectromonitor. Sample run time was less than 30 min. The sensitivity of the method was such that PL, PN, and PLP were detectable to 30 pmol/ml milk and PM and PMP to 5 pmol/ml milk. Total vitamin B-6 content in milk analyzed by RPLC correlated well with the microbiological assay. B-6 vitamer distribution in human milk was similar to values obtained from two different ion-exchange HPLC systems. The RPLC procedure is simpler and faster than the HPLC systems and is suggested for future use in analysis of B-6 vitamer concentrations in human milk.