A set of tests for measuring motor impairment in prevalence studies

Abstract

THE Social Research Unit at Bedford College was given a grant by the Ministry of Health to investigate the feasibility of an enquiry to establish how many individuals in the population at any given time have motor impairments or limitations.5 The planning, provision and evaluation of medical and social services for people with severely limited motor capacity are all impeded by the lack of knowledge of their numbers, demographic characteristics and social circumstances. As TOWNSEND [I] has suggested, a major reason for the lack of data on the disabled in society is that, although many statutory and voluntary services are concerned with such individuals, these agencies do not share a common unambiguous definition of what constitutes disablement, impairment or limitation. Moreover, even if there were a set of common definitions, some impaired individuals may be known to several agencies while others may be known to none. Basically, two kinds of approaches have been used in the identification of the physically disabled. The first identifies individuals who lack part or all of a limb, or who have a defective limb, organ or mechanism of the body. This kind of identification is usually undertaken by medical assessors on behalf of agencies which have to determine whether a given individual is entitled to monetary compensation or other form of benefit. Each agency has its own rules as to what constitutes a departure from the ‘normal’ sufficient to warrant labelling as ‘disabled’, ‘handicapped’, ‘impaired’ or so on. Sometimes it is sufficient for the agency to know that an individual has suffered from a chronic disease which habitually causes a static or progressive physical impairment. In other cases the agency requires a detailed medical examination to establish the amount of residual function left to a limb or body mechanism. The second approach is sometimes combined with the first. In this, those who, by reason of a physical defect, are apparently seriously handicapped in performing a