What it's like to grow older: the aging perceptions of people with an intellectual disability in Ireland.

The Intellectual Disability Supplement to The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing is a national longitudinal study on the aging of people with an intellectual disability (ID) using a randomly selected sample of people with ID over the age of 40. In total, 367 people with an ID completed the aging perception self-report only section. Over 57% of people described their health as very good to excellent with no significant difference in health perceptions found for gender, level of ID, or living circumstance. Exploring people's perceptions utilizing PASW Text Analytics for Surveys 4.1 perceptions often supported negative views of the consequences of aging. These findings suggest challenging negative aging concepts is essential to promote positivity with associated improved health and wellbeing.