People who have learning difficulties have died from COVID-19 nine times more than the general population during the first wave in the United Kingdom, as per a new study. In a study that was published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health, Europe, on Tuesday, people with nine different mental health conditions and intellectual disabilities witnessed higher mortality rates due to coronavirus.

The researchers inferred by analysing more than 160,000 deaths in the UK from March-June 2020. The study found that deaths from COVID-19 among people with an eating disorder were five times higher than the general population. It was also four times higher in people who had personality disorders and those with dementia.

The study also revealed that deaths were 3 times higher for people who had schizophrenia.

“It was a substantial increase,” lead study author Jayati Das-Munshi, from the Social and Psychiatric Epidemiology department at King’s College London, told CNN.

“We weren’t expecting this mortality gap to improve, definitely not, but I think the extent to which it did get worse was quite shocking actually.”

“All-cause mortality in people with dementia and learning disabilities were more than double in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the equivalent quarter of 2019,” reads the study.

“An elevated risk of all-cause mortality was also evident” among those with substance use disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders and other mental health conditions, it continues.

Das-Munshi said this is a problem healthcare professionals have been aware of for decades.

“There is a longstanding concern that people with mental health conditions don’t get the same quality of care for their health that people with physical health conditions get, but of course this was then further exacerbated by the pandemic,” she told CNN.

In the UK, mortality rates dropped from July-September 2020 as COVID-19 cases plummeted.

The lead author added that underlying conditions are also linked to increased COVID-19 infection.

“It comes back to this issue that we really do need to be thinking about enhancing access to preventative health interventions,” said Das-Munshi.

“That could be anything from cancer screening to managing cardiovascular disease, offering smoking cessation, offering vaccination, encouraging people to take up offers of vaccination, that sort of thing.”