How representative are organisations of persons with disabilities? Data from nine population-based surveys in low- and middle-income countries

Figures & data

Table 1. Survey methodologies.

Country	Year of reporting	Location	Sample size, adults (18+) with a disability	Approach for measuring disability in adults	Definition of disability used in this analysis
Botswana	2015	Nationally-representative	767	WGSS, self-report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain
Lesotho	2010	Nationally-representative	445	WGSS, self-report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain
Malawi	2018	Nationally-representative	2167	WGSS, self-report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain
Maldives	2017	Nationally-representative	318	WGSS Enhanced + write-in options, self-report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain; reporting daily symptoms of anxiety/ depression at an intensity described as ‘a lot’; has a health condition that would be eligible for the Disability Allowance (e.g. autism, psychosocial disability)
Nepal	2016	Nationally-representative	869	WGSS, self-report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain
Vietnam	2016	Cam Le district	135	WGSS, head of household report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain
Uganda	2020	Nationally-representative	1611	WGSS, self-report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain
Zambia	2018	Nationally-representative	580	WGSS, self-report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain
Zimbabwe	2015	Nationally- representative	3800	WGSS, self-report	‘A lot of difficulty’ or ‘cannot do’ for any domain

Table 2. Awareness of OPDs amongst people with disabilities in 9 countries.

	Botswana	Malawi	Lesotho	Maldives	Nepal	Vietnam	Uganda	Zimbabwe	Zambia
	n = 767	n = 2167	n = 445	n = 318	n = 869	n = 135	N = 1611	n = 2800	n = 567
Overall	29.2%	30.9%	12.4%	73.3%	35.6%	30.4%	26.4%	21.0%	33.3%
Gender
Men	28.8%	35.3%	10.1%	72.4%	45.2%	33.3%	28.1%	23.9%	35.5%
Women	29.8%	26.9***	14.5%	73.9%	25.5%***	27.8%	24.6%	18.7%**	31.5%
Age
18-64	34.7%	33.2%	14.1%	78.7%	38.5%	38.6%	28.1%	22.3%	36.0%
65+	12.9%	25.4%***	8.5%	61.8%**	24.2%***	17.3%**	22.4%*	18.9%*	28.1%
Functional difficulties
Sensory	28.2%	32.0%	12.3%	68.5%	29.2%***	25.7%	25.2%	21.2%	32.0%
Walking/upper body	28.3%	32.1%	13.0%	70.1%	47.5%***	31.4%	31.1%***	21.5%	34.6%
Remembering	20.8%*	18.5%***	7.0%*	63.8%	15.3%***	28.0%	20.4%*	15.0%***	21.3%**
Self-care	20.2%**	23.2%**	9.8%	60.0%	34.9%	24.5%	28.6%	17.1%***	9.2%***
Communicating	23.8%	21.8%***	9.4%	68.6%	21.5%***	26.3%	20.3%	14.6%***	21.8%
SES status
Quintile 1 (richest)	34.4%	46.8%		75.8%	33.5%	36.4%		31.8%
Quintile 2/3	35.7%	32.6%		69.8%	34.7%	35.0%		15.7%
Quintile 4/5 (poorest)	17.9%***	29.4%***		77.4%	38.2%	25.0%		12.2%***
Education
Never attended	19.4%	23.2%	8.7%	66.1%	22.3%	26.3%	19.5%	12.9%	24.4%
Ever attended	37.6%***	34.7%***	13.8%	74.8%	64.4%***	31.0%	32.7%***	24.2%**	36.9%**
Location
Rural	17.6%	29.9%	10.8%	74.9%	32.4%		25.5%	15.3%
Urban	35.6%***	41.4%***	15.5%	66.1%	50.7%***		32.1%*	34.3%***
Disability Allowance recipient
Yes				74.4%		54.0%***
No				72.9%		16.5%

Statistical significance testing (adjusted for age, sex): *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001; reference categories for multivariate analysis are men, age 16-64, richest SES quintile, no primary education, no Disability Allowance, rural location; for functional limitation, reference is all others without the specified limitation.

Table 3. Membership in OPDs amongst people with disabilities in nine countries.

	Botswana	Malawi	Lesotho	Maldives	Nepal	Vietnam	Uganda	Zimbabwe	Zambia
	n = 767	n = 2167	n = 445	n = 318	n = 869	n = 135	N = 1611	n = 3800	n = 567
Overall	8.9%	4.0%	8.1%	7.2%	9.2%	14.1%	6.9%	7.0%	3.4%
Gender
Men	8.7%	4.4%	7.8%	9.8%	11.2%	12.7%	7.4%	8.7%	3.4%
Women	9.8%	3.4%	8.2%	5.6%	7.1%*	15.3%	6.3%	6.1%*	3.5%
Age
18-64	11.0%	4.9%	8.3%	7.8%	10.6%	18.1%	7.6%	7.4%	4.4%
65+	4.4%**	2.0%***	7.7%	5.9%	3.9%**	7.7%	5.2%	6.3%	1.6%
Functional difficulties
Sensory	5.9%	4.2%	9.3%	3.7%	5.6%**	5.7%	6.2%	7.1%	4.2%
Walking/upper body	11.5%	4.3%	9.2%	8.6%*	14.2%***	15.1%	8.2%**	8.0%	4.1%
Remembering	6.1%	4.5%	0.9%**	5.7%	8.5%	10.0%	6.5%	5.2%**	1.1%
Self-care	5.8%*	2.3%	4.9%	10.9%	10.9%	13.2%	8.3%	5.6%*	2.6%
Communicating	9.4%	4.1%	4.7%	11.4%	4.8%**	5.3%	8.5%	4.5%*	1.7%
SES status
Quintile 1 (richest)	9.0%	6.0%		9.1%	9.0%	18.2%		9.5%
Quintile 2/3	10.8%	4.5%		7.6%	11.5%	18.3%		6.5%
Quintile 4/5 (poorest)	8.4%	3.1%***		4.7%	6.8%	9.4%		9.5%
Education
Never attended	6.5%	3.1%	6.5%	14.3%	4.6%	5.5%	4.6%	4.5%	3.1%
Ever attended	11.3%*	4.5%	8.7%	5.7%*	19.2%***	15.5%	8.8%***	7.9%**	3.7%
Location
Rural	5.9%	3.4%	8.1%	8.9%	8.2%		6.4%	5.7%
Urban	11.2%*	11.1%***	8.1%	4.7%	13.8%*		9.8%	9.7%***
Disability Allowance recipient
Yes				25.6 %***		30.0%***
No				1.3%		4.7%

Statistical significance testing (adjusted for age, sex): *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001.