Study of the living conditions of people with disabilities in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces.

The study is funded by the Norwegian Research Foundation and the South African Research Foundation.

The general aim of the study is to examine the living conditions of people with disabilities living in urban and rural areas.

The objectives are:

• To compare in the individual and the households of a group of people with disabilities who are registered with organisations (500 households),  a “control” group of people who do not report any disabilities (450 households) and  a group of people who are identified as having disabilities and who are located during the interviewing of the “control” group.
• To determine the following in a group of people with diverse disabilities:
  - The frequencies, nature and severity of impairments, activity and participation limitations, using the ICF checklist.
  - The nature and extent of the influence of environmental factors, whether barriers or facilitators, according to the ICF checklist.
  - The nature, cause and age of onset of the impairment
  - The medical, rehabilitation, educational and social support services that are/were required and the availability of these services and any problems encountered with accessing these services.
  - The need for, nature of and availability of assistive devices.
  - The educational history, including extent and providers of education and any constraints experienced as a result of the disability.
  - The employment history including employment status, income and any constraints experienced as a result of disability.
  - The nature, extent and utilisation of any disability grant
  - Accessibility of the home and key locations within the community
  - The amount of family support required and given in order to achieve activities of daily living.
  - The role of the people with disabilities within the family and the nature of their relationships with others in the family.
  - The health related quality of life using the descriptors and the visual analogue scale of the Xhosa version of the EQ-5D.
• To compare the above factors between households and people with disabilities living in peri-urban areas within the Western and Eastern Cape.
• To undertake a rigorous translation of the ICF checklist into Xhosa and document the problems encountered in finding culturally and semantically accurate terminology to reflect the ICF constructs.
• To test the ICF model of interactive causation of the disability experience through using the above information related to demographic factors, activity limitations, participation restrictions and different indicators of living conditions in a structural equation modelling analysis.
• To compare and contrast the living conditions of people with disabilities in South Africa with others in the region.
  

The research project represents a collaborative joint effort by:

• University of Cape Town (faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences)
• Disabled People South Africa (DPSA)
• The Norwegian Federation of Organisations of Disabled People (FFO)
• SINTEF Health research and
• University of Oslo (Section of medical Anthropology, General Practice and Community Medicine)