The emerging pattern of disability in Rwanda

Abstract

• It is important to design specific surveys to measure disability using contemporary methods to gauge the situation accurately and qualitatively.• Currently, the ICF provides the best framework to describe the epidemiology of disability meaningfully; it enables comparisons within and between countries and regions of the world; and enables the active participation of a wide range of rehabilitation stakeholders including PWDs and lay community members.• The vast majority of disabilities in Rwanda are limitations in visual, mobility and mental health functions.The emerging pattern of disability in Rwanda AbstractPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the emerging pattern of disability (activity limitation) in terms of its prevalence, age and gender distribution in Rwanda. Method: A door-to-door survey was conducted in all households in villages from two districts selected through a multi-stage sampling procedure. Identified persons were screened for activity limitations using age-appropriate instruments developed from domains in the ICF. Proportions were computed and disaggregated by age group, gender, district and activity limitation. A multidisciplinary rehabilitation team including community members participated in the development of instruments, community mobilisation, data collection and collation. Results: Prevalence rates of 8.6% (Bugesera) and 14.7% (Musanze) were obtained. The prevalence of disability was higher in adults than in children in both districts (10.4% versus 6.6% in Bugesera and 19.6% versus 7.7% in Musanze). Visual limitations occurred the most frequently in both adults and children in both districts. Mobility and mental health limitations also notably contributed to the overall disability burden. Conclusion: The prevalence of disability obtained was higher than all previously reported data for Rwanda. Despite the limitations, the findings provide useful information for planning rehabilitation services and to direct future enquiry into the epidemiology of disability in Rwanda.

Challenges in Accessing Health Care for People with Disability in the South Asian Context: A Review

“…Therefore, standardization of tools accompanied by adequate training to administer the tool and adequate quality assurance checks help generate valid data. The estimates from South Asia were comparable with reported prevalence rates from other LMICs (low- and middle-income countries) across the globe [ 11 , 28 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. The available evidence therefore points to the situation being similar in most LMICs, but translating the prevalence rates into numbers results in South Asia harboring the largest pool of PWD in the world.…”

Prevalence, Pattern, and Factors Associated With Self-reported Disability Among the Bhutanese Population: A Secondary Data Analysis of Population and Housing Census

“…Disability in seeing, followed by hearing, walking, cognition, and self-care in descending order was the pattern reported in Ethiopia and Rwanda, although the latter did not assess the hearing disability. 18,19…”

Provision and use of physical rehabilitation services for adults with disabilities in Rwanda: A descriptive study

“…Whilst both the Rwandan and South African estimates indicate there are fewer persons with disabilities, it is likely that both these estimates are inaccurate. There is a greater stigma associated with disability in African countries (Loeb 2013 ; M’Kumbuzi et al 2014 ); therefore, persons with disabilities may be reluctant to self-identify themselves as having a disability (Loeb 2013 ). With increasing life expectancy and prevalence of NCDs in Rwanda, it is quite possible that actual prevalence rates for disability are at least as high as Western countries (Alleyne et al 2013 ; Asiimwe-Kateera et al 2015 ; Tapela et al 2015 ).…”