The GLOBAL Medical Care Guidelines for Adults with Down Syndrome provide first of-kind, evidence-based medical recommendations to support clinicians in their care of adults with Down syndrome.
This life-changing resource as published in JAMA covers 9 topic areas deemed critically important for the health and well-being of adults with Down syndrome and outlines critical future research needs.
Adults with Down syndrome and their caregivers should review the GLOBAL Guidelines with their clinicians to ensure they are receiving care meeting best-practice standards for adults with Down syndrome!
About this clinical practice guideline
This clinical practice guideline focuses on people with Down syndrome due to Trisomy 21, not partial translocation or mosaicism, as even less literature and expertise exist for these latter two subgroups. The biggest challenges for guideline development relate to their intended scope, breadth and depth, and lack of evidence. Down syndrome is not itself a disease, but rather a complex genetic condition involving every major organ-system and life-stage experience. Thus, comprehensive adult guidelines would need to address all concerns and involve every major organ-system.
The first set of key questions addressed by the GLOBAL Workgroup does not cover all systems, all questions, or all health conditions. In this first iteration, the topic areas covered are:
- Behavior
- Dementia
- Diabetes
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Obesity
- Atlantoaxial Instability
- Osteoporosis
- Thyroid
- Celiac Disease…
All further information on the guidelines, a checklist and a PDF of the full guidelines can be found at: https://www.globaldownsyndrome.org/global-adult-guidelines/