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Purpose: This study aimed to assess the level of activity limitation, and the factors associated with it, among people affected by leprosy who were reporting at a leprosy referral centre of Purulia, in West Bengal state, India.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 358 individuals affected by leprosy. Persons recruited for this study were above 18 years of age, married, and had been diagnosed with leprosy for at least 1 year at the time of the interview. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to gather information about the respondents’ socio-economic and disease status. The Screening of Activity Limitation and Safety Awareness (SALSA) Scale was used to measure activity limitation.

Results: Of the 358 respondents, 59% were male, 60% were between 18 and 45 years of age, and 42% were illiterate. About 144 or 40% of the respondents had Grade 2 disability and 60% had disease duration of more than 3 years. There were 229 individuals (64%) who had no limitation in activities, 103 (29%) had mild limitation and 26 (7%) had moderate to severe limitation in activities. There is a significant association between gender, age, occupation, physical disability and disease duration with activity limitation.

Conclusion: It appears that limitations in activities among persons affected by leprosy are associated with being a woman, ahousewife, an aged person, and with longer disease duration. The physical disability was intrinsically associated with limitation in activities.

Purpose: While ageing is an inevitable phenomenon of life, physical activity is important for healthy ageing. Compared to the other age groups, older adults throughout the world have the lowest rate of participation in recommended levels of physical activity. This study aimed to investigate the physical activity status of the community-dwelling elderly population in Gujarat, India.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study. A door-to-door survey was conducted among selected communities near Vadodara in Gujarat. Based on the inclusion criteria (age≥60years, MMSE-≥24), 347 elderly persons were included in the study. Data was collected using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ), and analysed using descriptive statistics.

Results: Among the 347 older adults (mean age 67.43±7.46 years) who participated in the study, 159 were male and 188 were female. While 125 participants (36%) were physically active at levels recommended by the World Health Organisation, 222(64%) were physically inactive.

Conclusion: Only 36% of the participants were physically active as per WHO recommendations. The men were more physically active than the women in the study sample. This study implies that there is a need to create an awareness regarding the importance of physical activity for healthy aging.

Purpose: In low- and middle-income countries, reliable and disaggregated disability data on prevalence, participation and barriers is often not available. This study aimed to estimate disability prevalence, determine associated socio-demographic factors and compare access in the community between people with and without disability in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand, India, using the Rapid Assessment of Disability Survey.

Methods: A cross-sectional population-based survey was conducted on a sample of 2431 adults, selected using a two-stage cluster randomised sampling technique. The survey comprised an interviewer-administered household survey and an individual survey measuring disability, wellbeing and participation.  For each person with disability, an age and sex-matched control (without disability) was selected. In addition to prevalence, the difference in participation and barriers faced by people with and without disability were analysed.

Results and Conclusions: The prevalence of disability was 6.8% (95% CI 5.8-7.8) with significant associations with age, sex, economic status, education and employment. Psychosocial distress (4.8%) and mobility impairment (2.7%) were the most common disabilities identified. The study showed that people with disabilities had significantly less access to services than those without disability, and the barriers reported most often were lack of information, transport and physical inaccessibility.

Purpose: Hearing Impairment is one of the most neglected forms of disability. It accounts for the loss of thousands of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) worldwide (WHO, 2005). Developed countries have made some progress in the measuring and management of hearing impairment (HI), but this is still in the initial stages in developing countries such as India. The International Classification of Functioning disability and Health (ICF) has shifted the approach towards a holistic perspective in defining and measuring disability. This paper tries to measure HI from the perspective of social and emotional functioning of individuals.

Method: The sample population consisted of 1160 individuals, selected by systematic random sampling from among those who complied with inclusion criteria. 51.7% of the total respondents were females, and 48.3% were males. The participants were administered a questionnaire (Standardised) and their responses were quantified. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.

Results: Prevalence of HI was found more among males than females. 84.6% of the total population had no hearing impairment, whereas 13.7% had mild to moderate impairment, and 1.7% had significant hearing impairment. The TotalImpairment score obtained by the individuals was divided into Social Impairment score and Emotional Impairment score. Correlation and Multivariate regression analysis were used. Correlation - Age and Social Dimension Score r= 0.609,p≤0.01, n=1160, R2= 0.370; Age and Emotional Dimension score: r= 0.622, p≤0.01, n=1160, R2= 0.386; Regression- Gender and Social Dimension score b= 0.703, t (1160) = 2.988, p<0.05; Age and Total HI score b= 0.787, t (1160) =27.096, p< 0.01.

Conclusion: Measuring HI in terms of social and emotional functioning is more holistic and cost-effective, and could be used in resource-poor settings, and for initial screening in large-scale studies.

Violence and sexual violence against persons with disabilities at community level are serious issues. Though CBR programmes and DPOs are expected to prevent violence and offer support to the victims, there is very little informationabout their role in this regard.

Purpose: This research aimed to assess the level of violence and sexual violence experienced by DPO members, and the role played by CBR programmes in preventing it.

Method: The study involved a non-random consecutive sample of 146 persons with disabilities from 3 sub-districts of Bidar district in Karnataka, India. Using a structured questionnaire, interviews were conducted by a group of trained DPO members and CBR workers, many of whom had personal experience of violence. The data was entered using Epi-Info and then converted into spreadsheet Tables for analysis.

Results: 58% of the sample reported having experienced violence and 14% reported experiences of sexual violence during the previous 12 months. Girls and women reported higher levels of violence at different age groups. Male children and young adults reported having experienced more violence, including sexual violence, than older men. The research did not provide conclusive evidence that participation in the CBR and DPO activities played a protective role.

Conclusions: Violence and sexual violence against persons with disabilities are serious problems. More research on the subject, in terms of roles of CBR programmes and DPOs, is needed.