Disability pensions in individuals diagnosed with a developmental language disorder as children

Abstract

Knowledge is limited regarding the association between developmental language disorder (DLD) and disability pension. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to estimate the prevalence and grounds for granting disability pensions in a group of individuals diagnosed with a DLD as children. Four-hundred and sixty-nine individuals with a DLD (consecutively assessed in the same clinic during a period of 10 years) and 2345 controls from the general population were screened through the nationwide Danish Register of Disability Pensions, covering a study period of 11 years. The results show that individuals with DLD had significantly higher rates of disability pensions granted compared with the control group: 11.3% versus 2% ('p'<0.0001; odds ratio = 6.2; 95% confidence interval: 4.15–9.35). Mental disorder was the most frequent reason given for granting a disability pension and accounted for 86.8% of cases in the DLD group and 72.3% in the comparison group. The variable degree of expressive language disorder was related to the relative risk of being granted a disability pension, with the highest level apparent in the mild scoring group at assessment in childhood. Our results show that a diagnosis of DLD in childhood constitutes a strong predictor of disability pension in early adult life, thus emphasizing an urgent need for more knowledge about individual and contextual risk factors.

Keywords

• developmental language disorders
• disability pension
• mental disorder
• risk factors