Comments on Measuring Disability in an International Context

1
Comments on Measuring Disability in an
International Context

• Barbara M. Altman, Ph.D.
• Disability Statistics Consultant

2
Measuring Disability Prevalence - Contributions

• Definition of Disability in context of ICF
• Elaboration of the variety of measures in use
• Explanation of the variety of purposes for
  disability data collection and how those purposes
  dictate how questions are structured (i.e. what
  is measured).
• Case study examples
• Conclusions - Box 4

3
Measuring Disability Prevalence Further
Suggestions

• Language consistency
• Body Functions
• Activities/deliberate actions/basic actions/basic
  core activities
• Use of the Eide Loeb and WHO work
• Example of questions
• Range of activities
• Comparability of answer categories
• Mild/moderate/severenone/some/a lot/unable

4
The Case of Uzbekistan - Contributions

• Poverty-Disability relationship key research
  question
• Introduction of administrative definition for
  comparison purposes
• Interpretation and translation of disability
  questions
• Robustness of measures

5
The Case of Uzbekitan - Suggestions

• Measure of poverty and the interaction effect of
  age.
• Consistency of responses across measures
• Actual requirements to qualify as officially
  disabled and does this differ by region.
• Scoring of Activity of Daily Living measure

6
Washington Group Extended Measures

• Papers reflect challenges with very basic
  measures.
• A more extended set of measures presents a much
  larger set of challenges
• Do we want to focus on a particular aspect of
  disability activity or participation or do we
  want a mixture of questions?
• How best to assure cultural comparability when
  moving into more complicated participation
  issues?
• Do we want to create our own questions or start
  with questions already in use, particularly in
  developed countries?

7
Agenda for the Dublin Meeting

• Identify the focus of an extended question set or
  sets.
• Agree on the number of extended sets to be
  considered.
• Prioritize the development of extended sets.
• Develop source of questions or chose to create
  our own.

8
Number and Focus of Extended Question Sets

• Identify the number and focus of extended
  question sets from among many possibilities.
• Expand on areas of functioning to supplement
  those captured by Census questions.
• Expand in depth on those questions asked in the
  Census set
• Develop a set to cover all the domains identified
  by the ICF
• Develop a set to represent the environmental
  aspects

9
Develop Sources for Questions

• World Bank Money is used up, potential for more
  funds not appearing promising.
• Other entities are working on extended question
  sets including
• Eurostat Euroreves Budapest Initiative
  Australian Bureau of Statistics UNESCAP
• Secretariat has lost most of its staff, work
  voluntary from member statistical organizations

10
Work Group Activity

• Developing a position paper to address these
  issues.
• Strong discussions on measuring participation and
  the cross-cultural difficulties.
• Additional elements under discussion to include
  in extended set, such as age at onset, number of
  questions to be included, how closely to reflect
  ICF, issues associated with measures for
  children, institutionalized population.