Prevalence of Down syndrome population in the US

A new approach recently was developed for estimating the prevalence of Down syndrome, and it already has been applied in Ireland, The Netherlands, and England/Wales. This approach estimates prevalence using maternal age and Down syndrome risk, along with Down syndrome mortality rates derived from multiple studies. A similar strategy was used to estimate the prevalence of Down syndrome in the US, using estimates of annual births of people with Down syndrome over the past century. The results of this study by Presson et al show that on January 1, 2008, the prevalence of people with Down syndrome was approximately 250 700 with a 90% uncertainty interval of 185 900 to 321 700, which corresponds to a prevalence of 8.27 people with Down syndrome per 10 000. This estimate is about 25% to 40% lower than estimates based solely on birth prevalence. The data should be useful for planning health and social services for people with Down syndrome and for developing public health policies.
Source: The Journal of Pediatrics - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: The Editors' Perspectives Source Type: research