Time trends in socio-economic inequalities for women and men with disabilities in Australia: evidence of persisting inequalities

Anne M Kavanagh,Lauren Krnjacki,Andrew Beer,Anthony D Lamontagne,Rebecca Bentley

doi:10.1186/1475-9276-12-73

Abstract

IntroductionThe socio-economic circumstances and health of people with disabilities has been relatively ignored in public health research, policy and practice in Australia and internationally. This is despite emerging evidence that the socio-economic circumstances that people with disabilities live in contributes to their poorer health. Compared to other developed countries, Australians with disabilities are more likely to live in disadvantaged circumstances, despite being an economically prosperous country; it is therefore likely that the socio-economic disadvantage experienced by Australians with disabilities makes a significant contribution to their health. Despite the importance of this issue Australia does not routinely monitor the socio-economic inequalities for people with disabilities. This paper addresses this gap by describing time trends in socio-economic conditions for Australians with and without disabilities according to the severity of the disability and sex.MethodsCross-sectional analyses of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers were carried out at three time points (1998, 2003 and 2009) to estimate the proportions of women and men (aged between 25 and 64 years) who were living on low incomes, had not completed year 12, were not in paid work, living in private rental and experiencing multiple disadvantage (three or more of the indicators).ResultsPeople with disabilities are less likely to have completed year 12, be in paid work and are more likely to be living on low incomes and experiencing multiple disadvantage. These conditions worsened with increasing severity of disability and increased or persisted over time, with most of the increase between 1998 and 2003. While women with milder disabilities tended to fare worse than men, the proportions were similar for those with moderate and severe/profound disabilities.ConclusionPeople with disabilities experience high levels of socio-economic disadvantage which has increased or persisted over time and these are likely to translate into poorer health outcomes. A large proportion experience multiple forms of disadvantage, reinforcing the need to tackle disadvantage in a coordinated way across sectors.People with disabilities should be a priority population group for public health. Monitoring socio-economic conditions of people with disabilities is critical for informing policy and assessing the impact of disability reforms.

Highlights

The socio-economic circumstances and health of people with disabilities has been relatively ignored in public health research, policy and practice in Australia and internationally
Cross-sectional analyses of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers were carried out at three time points (1998, 2003 and 2009) to estimate the proportions of women and men who were living on low incomes, had not completed year 12, were not in paid work, living in private rental and experiencing multiple disadvantage
In sum, we demonstrate inequalities in socio-economic indicators for women and men with disabilities compared with people without disabilities – a situation that worsens with increasing severity of disability

Summary

Introduction

The socio-economic circumstances and health of people with disabilities has been relatively ignored in public health research, policy and practice in Australia and internationally. This is despite emerging evidence that the socio-economic circumstances that people with disabilities live in contributes to their poorer health. People with disabilities experience significant levels of socio-economic disadvantage which is likely to contribute to their poor physical and mental health [1,2,3] While evidence of this relationship is currently limited (partly due to inadequate data), a recent Australian longitudinal study found that for young Australians with disabilities less advantageous living conditions largely contributed to their lower wellbeing and poorer psychological health [4]. Forty-five percent of Australian adults with a disability live below the poverty line while in countries such as Sweden and Mexico people with disabilities are or less likely to live in poverty than people without a disability [5]

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Conclusion