Abstract
The definition of disability had been unclear until the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health was promulgated in 2001 by the World Health Organization (WHO). Disability is a critical but relatively neglected public-health concern. We conducted this study to measure disabilities by using the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) and identify the factors that contribute to disabilities. We obtained and analyzed the data on people who applied to Taiwan’s disability registration system between September 2012 and August 2013. A total of 158,174 cases were selected for this study. Among the people included in this study, 53% were male, and the females were on average 3 years older than the males. More males than females were of a low socioeconomic status, but the rate of employment was higher among the males than among the females. Age, sex, place of residence, and types and severity of impairment were all determined to be factors that independently contributed to disability. This study has demonstrated that disability can be measured and compared using WHODAS 2.0. Increasing the public-health attention devoted to disability and identifying the factors associated with disability can promote independence and social participation in people with disabilities.
Highlights
Disability has been described as the result of interaction between an individual’s functional impairments, activity limitations, participation restrictions and their environment and personal factors that lead to serious impact on the individual and society [1]
Physicians identified candidates who were eligible for disability benefits based mainly on the severity of bodily impairment, but did not adequately evaluate the person’s daily activity and social participation or the environmental factors that affected these individuals
Based on physicians’ diagnoses of disabilities within the registry, we identified 10 leading causes of disability that were included under these ICD-9CM groupings: schizophrenia (295), stroke (431–438), spinal cord injury (344.0, 344.1, 767.4, 806, 907.2, and 952), hearing impairment (388–389), dementia
Summary
Disability has been described as the result of interaction between an individual’s functional impairments, activity limitations, participation restrictions and their environment and personal factors that lead to serious impact on the individual and society [1]. People with disabilities, such as individuals with stroke, hearing impairment, or schizophrenia, often experience challenges in their daily lives, and their activities and social participation are limited. Disability is recognized as a critical but neglected public-health concern [4,5,6]
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