This paper seeks to develop a study protocol that can assess and improve the provision of rehabilitation services for people with disabilities across the world. The research targets a knowledge gap that exists whereby there are no indicators to reliable identify the performance of rehabilitation systems and monitoring technologies. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the issue before outlining and justifying a choice of methods for data collection and analysis, and the likely impact and use of the study results
"There is a general lack of knowledge regarding disability and especially factors that are associated with disability in low-income countries. We aimed to study the overall and gender-specific prevalence of disability, and the association between exposure to traumatic events and disability in a post-conflict setting. We conducted a cross-sectional community based study of four Greater Bahr el Ghazal States, South Sudan (n = 1200). The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) was applied to investigate exposure to trauma events. Disability was measured using the Washington Group Short Measurement Set on Disability, which is an activity based scale derived from the WHO’s International Classification of Disability, Functioning and Health. The estimated prevalence of disability (with severe difficulty) was 3.6% and 13.4% for disability with moderate difficulties. No gender differences were found in disability prevalence. Almost all participants reported exposure to at least one war-related traumatic event. The result of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that, for both men and women, exposure to traumatic events, older age and living in a polygamous marriage increased the likelihood of having a disability. The finding of association between traumatic experience and disability underlines the precariousness of the human rights situation for individuals with disability in low-income countries. It also has possible implications for the construction of disability services and for the provision of health services to individuals exposed to traumatic events"
This paper describes "the work of the Washington Group and explicates the applicability of its approach and the questions developed for monitoring the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities"
BMC Public Health, Vol 11, Suppl 4
This article looks at the links between HIV and AIDS and disability; gives a brief overview of how both are treated in international human rights law; and looks at some of the ways in which national anti-discrimination laws reflect the links between HIV and AIDS and disability, with representative examples from various countries. The conclusions and recommendations suggest how future collaborations between HIV and disability rights activists might advance human rights at the international level, for example by making use of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
This article is the first in a series of three that together describe research strategies to address the relation between contemporary globalisation and the social determinants of health (SDH) through an 'equity lens'
In this second article, several, often interacting clusters of pathways leading from globalisation to changes in social determinants of health that are relevant to health equity, are identified and described. These involve: trade liberalisation; the global reorganisation of production and labour markets; debt crises and economic restructuring; financial liberalisation; urban settings; influences that operate by way of the physical environment; and health systems changed by the global marketplace
Interventions to reduce health inequities by way of social determinants of health are inextricably linked with social protection, economic management and development strategy. Reflecting this insight, and against the background of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), this article focuses on the asymmetrical distribution of gains, losses and power that is characteristic of globalisation in its current form and identifies a number of areas for innovation on the part of the international community