Estimating the extra cost of living with disability in Vietnam

Abstract

Disability is shown to be both a cause and a consequence of poverty. However, relatively little research has investigated the economic cost of living with a disability. This study reports the results of a study on the extra cost of living with disability in Vietnam in 2011. The study was carried out in eight cities/provinces in Vietnam, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh cities (two major metropolitan in Vietnam) and six provinces from each of the six socio-economic regions in Vietnam. Costs are estimated using the standard of living approach whereby the difference in incomes between people with disability and those without disability for a given standard of living serves as a proxy for the cost of living with disability. The extra cost of living with disability in Vietnam accounted for about 8.8–9.5% of annual household income, or valued about US$200–218. Communication difficulty was shown to result in highest additional cost of living with disability and self-care difficulty was shown to lead to the lowest levels of extra of living cost. The extra cost of living with disability increased as people had more severe impairment. Interventions to promote the economic security of livelihood for people with disabilities are needed.

Keywords:

• cost of living
• disability
• poverty
• Vietnam

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge financial support from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

Notes

1. This was estimated based on the ‘difficult’ threshold; the proportion went down to 3.6% if ‘very difficult’ threshold was used, and 1% if ‘Cannot do it’ threshold was used.

2. Estimating population proportion with specified absolute precision d = 0.05, confidence level = 95%, anticipated population proportion = 0.16.

3. As (207 × 8 × 2)/(0.8) = 4140.