Article Text
Abstract
Background Approximately 15% of world’s population experience some form of disability. In Bangladesh, the prevalence of persons with disabilities is 6.94% which is around 11 million people. The aim of this study is to measure the prevalence of injury related disability.
Methods A countrywide cross sectional house-to-house survey was conducted between March and June 2016 among 70,000 households in 16 randomly selected districts of Bangladesh. Multistage cluster sampling method considering probability-proportional-to-size strategy for separate urban and rural samples was used to obtain the desired sample.
Results The result shows that the disability rates were found in all age groups. Overall rate was 165.8 (95%CI;151.8–181.0) where much higher in the older age group 446.7(95%CI;368.1–541.9). The males were almost double 226.7(95%CI;203.8–252), compared to female 104.5(95%CI;89.4–122.3). Incidence was significantly higher among respondents in rural areas 194.8 (95% CI 176.1–215.5) than in urban 113.0(95%CI;94.5–135.0). The leading causes of injury related disability was road traffic injury which accounts for 34.3% followed by fall was 33.9%. machine, cut and blunt injury contributed almost similar cause of disability which were 7.7%, 6.9% and 6.0% respectively. On the other hand, less contributing injuries are animal bite 4.0%, violence 3.6%, electrocution 2.8% and burn 0.8%.
Conclusion Injury related disability contributed a significant number to the total disability burden in the country. Road traffic, fall and cut injury were the leading cause of injury related disability in Bangladesh.
Learning Outcomes Non-fatal injuries have a significant impact on disability. The injuries need appropriate measures to reduce burden of disability in Bangladesh.