Jul 7, 2026 · 23 min · 9 segments
In the second part of our conversation with Prof. Eilish Burke, we delve into the important topic of bone health and why it matters for people with intellectual disabilities as they grow older…
Eilish BurkeGuest
Nessa CoffeyHost
Claire HendrickHost
But there are other areas like our bone health, and that's my own area of research.
The osteoporosis is extremely high in comparison to what is being diagnosed, a doctor's diagnosis.
So in wave five, which was in 2023, we objectively measured using quantitative heel ultrasound.
But we identified about 33% of people with osteoporosis, objectively measured, with a further 30% with osteopenia.
So that's 60% poor bone health, whereas when we asked them, had they a doctor's diagnosis, only 19% were able to tell us.
But what we, correlating to that, was that 60% of people And these are older adults with complex medical history and all the risk factors and medications and everything that impacts on your bone health, they hadn't gone for screening.
And the biggest driver of the poor screening or the poor attendance was the fact that they couldn't access it.
access, being afraid, not being able to articulate that this is a very scary thing to do.
Of course, DEXA scans, not everybody can actually go in and hop up on the table and lie down quite nice and quietly and hold it for 30 minutes.
So if you're in a wheelchair, that affects not only people with intellectual disability, that affects a lot of people and a lot of our older adults.
But there are other areas like our bone health, and that's my own area of research.
The osteoporosis is extremely high in comparison to what is being diagnosed, a doctor's diagnosis.
So in wave five, which was in 2023, we objectively measured using quantitative heel ultrasound.
But we identified about 33% of people with osteoporosis, objectively measured, with a further 30% with osteopenia.
So that's 60% poor bone health, whereas when we asked them, had they a doctor's diagnosis, only 19% were able to tell us.
But what we, correlating to that, was that 60% of people And these are older adults with complex medical history and all the risk factors and medications and everything that impacts on your bone health, they hadn't gone for screening.
And the biggest driver of the poor screening or the poor attendance was the fact that they couldn't access it.
access, being afraid, not being able to articulate that this is a very scary thing to do.
Of course, DEXA scans, not everybody can actually go in and hop up on the table and lie down quite nice and quietly and hold it for 30 minutes.
So if you're in a wheelchair, that affects not only people with intellectual disability, that affects a lot of people and a lot of our older adults.
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