What socio-demographic factors influence poverty and financial health care access among disabled people in Flanders: a cross-sectional study

Margo Adams,Herman Janssens,Nele Augustyns,Bart Vriesacker,Guido Van Hal

doi:10.1186/2049-3258-72-5

Margo Adams, Herman Janssens + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/2049-3258-72-5

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Abstract

BackgroundCurrent literature shows that people with a disability have a lower income than people without a disability. Disabled people often experience difficulties with health care access.The objective of this study is to assess the current financial situation and poverty rate amongst disabled people in Flanders. Furthermore we wanted to analyze factors that contribute to the risk of poverty and problems with financial health care access in adult people with a disability in Flanders.MethodsAn online and paper survey were constructed and made available through two large organizations for people with different types of disability in Flanders. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were performed.ResultsIn this convenience sample, 20.9% of the 889 respondents live under the poverty threshold. Important contributing factors to the risk of poverty are having children (OR 3.43, 95% CI 2.10-5.59) and a low level of dependence (OR 16.40, 95% CI 6.21-43.28). 25.2% of the respondents did not access health care because of financial shortcomings. A low level of dependence is one important contributing factor (OR 3.16, 95% CI 1.41-6.98) to limited financial health care access.ConclusionThis research confirms that disability is associated with a higher risk of poverty and impaired financial health care access.

Highlights

Current literature shows that people with a disability have a lower income than people without a disability
The survey was distributed to all members of the two largest associations for disabled people in Flanders (Catholic Association for Disabled people, CAD, and Association for Persons with a Disability, ADP) as an attachment to their bimonthly member magazines (38,000 members)
Characteristics of the respondents A total of 889 respondents completed the survey without missing values (44.2% female; mean age 45.6, range 19–91). 13.7% of the respondents had children and significantly more women had children (p = 0.003). 26.7% lived in a specialized facility

Summary

Introduction

Current literature shows that people with a disability have a lower income than people without a disability. Disabled people often experience difficulties with health care access. The objective of this study is to assess the current financial situation and poverty rate amongst disabled people in Flanders. We wanted to analyze factors that contribute to the risk of poverty and problems with financial health care access in adult people with a disability in Flanders. International research on poverty and health care accessibility among disabled people is scarce [1]. People with impaired access to health care tend to be in worse health and with lower income [3,4]. Disabled people in particular experience difficulty with health care access regardless of their income [1,6]. Having a disability decreases both job and housing opportunities [2,7,8,9]

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