United Nations collection of national disability statistics

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Fifth Meeting of the Washington Group on
Disability Statistics, Rio de Janeiro, 21-23
September 2005

• United Nations collection of national
  disability statistics
• from population and housing censuses and related
  national surveys and administrative registers

Maria Martinho and Jeremiah Banda United Nations
Statistics Division http//unstats.un.org/unsd/dem
ographic
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Outline of the presentation

• The Demographic yearbook system (DYB)
• Results of the DYB pre-testing
• Impact of different approaches on the level of
  disability prevalence
• The design of the DYB questionnaire

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The Demographic Yearbook System (DYB)

• Collects, compiles and disseminates official
  statistics on a wide range of topics
• Data have been collected from national
  statistical authorities since 1948
• A set of questionnaires is dispatched annually by
  the United Nations Statistics Division to over
  230 national statistical offices
• Regular collection of human functioning and
  disability statistics starting by the end of 2005

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DYB collection of disability statistics

• UNSD Pilot Questionnaire on Human Function and
  Disability Statistics
• Tested in 44 countries
• Data
• Population with and without disabilities
• Population with and without disabilities by
  school attendance
• Population with and without disabilities by
  activity status
• All tables by age, sex and urban/rural residence
• Metadata
• Capture methodological factors that can influence
  disability prevalence rates
• Question wording, coverage, mode of data
  collection, etc

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Results of the DYB pre-testing

• Tested in 57 countries/areas
• Africa (21)
• Asia (21)
• South America (6)
• North America (8)
• Oceania (1)

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National data collection on disability statistics
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Results from the pre-testing Censuses

• 41 countries/areas collect disability data in
  censuses
• Questions available for 31 countries
• Most census questions are either
• (i) generic questions or
• (ii) impairment based (28 countries/areas)
• Only three countries use neutral language and
  activity limitations
• 5 countries use one question for the household

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Results from the pre-testing Censuses
1. Are you blind?
If Yes, do you have any difficulty with the
following activities?
Inverted funnel

• Bahamas, Fiji, Mauritius and Zimbabwe

1. Do you have any difficulty with the following
activities?
If Yes, are you blind?

• Uganda

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Results from the pre-testing Censuses

• Other questions
• Type of disability 29 countries
• Cause of disability 7 countries
• Institutionalized population covered in 26
  countries
• Face-to-face interview in 34 countries
• One respondent per household 25 countries

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Results from the pre-testing Surveys

• 27 countries/areas collect disability data in
  surveys
• Questionnaires tend to be longer
• Design of the sample can be complex
• Some countries are using weighting schemes for
  the questions

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Results from the pre-testing Surveys

• Institutional population
• Covered 3 Not covered 8 NA 16
• Mode of data collection
• Face-to-face interview 18 NA 8
• Respondent
• One respondent per household 7
• Self-response 8 NA 8

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Impact of different approaches on the level of
disability prevalence

• Countries included 29 countries
• Participated in the pre-testing of the UNSD Pilot
  questionnaire
• Provided information on census
• Extra information was gathered from DISTAT,
  country reports and manuals, NSOs websites and WG
  country reports
• Preliminary study
• Look at two census in the same country
• Demographic, social and cultural background is
  similar

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Dominican Republic
In 2001, Blind of one eye, Loss or limitation
in moving arms/legs
Do you have any of the following disabilities? -
Blind, deaf, mute, physical dsabilities, does not
have disabilities.
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Zambia
Are you disabled in any way?
Is ....... blind? Deaf/dumb? Crippled?
Mentally retarded?
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Uganda, 1991 2001 censuses
2001 Do you have any difficulty in moving,
seeing, hearing, speaking or learning, that has
lasted or is expected to last 6 months or more?
2001
1991
1991 Is anyone in the household in the census
night disabled?
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Preliminary conclusions

• Factors that may affect the level of disability
  prevalence
• Number of domains included
• Use of activity based questions
• Use of generic questions provides low level of
  prevalence

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Impact of different approaches on the level of
disability prevalence

• Comparing countries worldwide
• Need to account for different age-sex
  distributions across countries use world
  standardized prevalence rate
• Census questions on disability were found to be
  of four main types
• Other factors are also considered
• Mode of data collection, respondent, coverage of
  institutions, use of neutral terminology, minimum
  time duration for disability

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Type of question
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(No Transcript)
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Number of items included in the question
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Mode of data collection and respondent
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Conclusions

• Four main types of questions were identified
• Question on activity limitation and participation
  restriction lead to the higher rates
• Mode of data collection and respondent seem to
  have an effect when generic questions are used
• No other factor was found to be influential

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Limitations of the study

• The conclusions are limited by what was provided
  by countries e.g. few countries in our study
  used scaled responses
• Other relevant factors are difficult to measure
• How to account for training of the enumerators?
• How to account for translation?

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Impact on the UNSD Pilot questionnaire

• How to capture the impact of measurement?
• Should UNSD account for survey and ARs
  measurement?
• If yes, how to reflect the design and evaluate
  the quality of the data?
• Should the questionnaire request cause of
  disability?

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• THANKS!
• Comments
• Questions