Population Health Status and Problems in Characterizing Disability in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chia-yen Lin, 林嘉彥
• Other Authors: Chia-lin Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/75924889776293364197

碩士 === 長庚大學 === 醫務管理學研究所 === 93 === Abstract We analyze the returns to the “2003 Survey of Physically and Mentally Retarded Citizens in Taiwan” for consistency between the disability severity, as certified by physicians and identified on the handbooks, and the self reported limitations of daily functioning. The results indicate that the consistency index, a Kappa value constructed to measure the diagonal domination on square contingency tables, is generally lower than expected across all categories of disability and all types of daily functioning. Surprisingly we found the disability severity certified by the physicians appears to be less stringent than the self reported limitations of daily functioning. Subsequently comparing the prevalence rates of disability based on severity of disability and limitations of daily functioning by single-year age groups by sex, we found all the age curves for the prevalence rates conform to the shape of double exponential function. The age curves of disability in different severities display parallelism to the degrees of limitation in daily functioning, though obviously not identical. The result indicates that a thorough examination and modeling of the contingency tables beyond the diagonal domination should be considered for better understanding the relationship between disability severity and daily functioning. A better approach to the allocation of subsidy can therefore be formulated based on the combination of disability severity and limitations of daily functioning.