Soraya Maart

Jennifer Jelsma

Division of Physiotherapy, University of Cape Town

Purpose

A community based survey of disability was undertaken in one of the least resourced areas of Cape Town to investigate the impact and causes of disability within these areas. This paper will present preliminary results of the most common types of disability reported.

Relevance

In order for authorities to equitably distribute resources, the burden of disability across the different types of impairment needs to be established. This study set out to document the prevalence of the different types of self-reported impairment.

Participants

Cluster sampling was used to identify 1000 households that were proportionally representative of those living in brick houses, in back yards and in informal settlements. The head of the household was interviewed and asked to identify whether there were any people with disabilities living within the household. Those identified as having disabilities or their proxies were then interviewed.

Methods

Validated questions were used to screen for disability and self-reported causes of disability were recorded..

Analysis

Descriptive statistics were used to describe the frequency of disability and non-parametric test were used to identify any differences in presentation between males and females and at different ages.

Results

From November 2011 to January 2012, 961 households were visited and information gained on 4043 individuals, of which 46.5% were males.  There were 18 missing responses. The mean age of the sample was 30.5 (SD20.8) (23 missing).

 Of the total of 4043 people on whom data was collected, 2.4% had problems with seeing, 1.5% with hearing, 4.4% with walking, 3.5% with remembering, 4.5% with self-care and 2.8% with communication.  There were 346 people identified with at least some difficulty in one area, a prevalence of 8.6%. The prevalence of having one severe problem in one domain was 4.1% .

Of those with some difficulty in one domain (347), 44% were male and the mean age was 34.7 (SD=28.0). The range was from birth through to 91 years of age.

Conclusions

Mobility and self-care were the domains in which most reported problems indicating a need for rehabilitation of mobility and function. The age of the sample was quite young and the need to provide services to people who are still in an economically active age bracket should be a priority.

Implications

Information gained can be used to inform the deployment of appropriate rehabilitation personnel to the areas under study.

Key words

Epidemiology, prevalence of disability.

Acknowledgements

Funding was received from the National Research Foundation and the Research Committee of the University of Cape Town, Western Cape Department of Health.