Living conditions of an adolescent population with Down's syndrome during a one-year period.

The living conditions during 1985 of 43 probands with Down's syndrome and 55 controls in the Danish county of Aarhus were investigated. All patients and all controls were born January 1, 1965 to December 31, 1970. The mean age on census day (December 31, 1985) was 17.6 years for probands and 17.4 years for controls. On census day, 30 (70%) of the probands lived in private homes, and 13 (30%) were institutionalized. Controls lived in various places of residence, but none were institutionalized. All probands and all controls had a daily occupation during at least part of 1985. Twenty-seven (63%) probands and 25 (46%) controls attended evening classes during 1985. All but one proband, and all controls participated in recreation activities or entertainment during 1985. More than 75% of the probands went outside their permanent residence at least twice a week (school/work excluded). During 1985, 9 (60%) out of 15 probands institutionalized received an average of 6.5 visits; an average of 20.1 phone calls were made to the staff to inquire about the well being of 7 (47%) out of 15 probands.