Melbourne School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne, Level 3, 207 Bouverie St, 3010 Parkville, Vic, Australia.
Int J Equity Health. 2013 Aug 29;12:73. doi: 10.1186/1475-9276-12-73.
The socio-economic circumstances and health of people with disabilities has been relatively ignored in public health research, policy and practice in Australia and internationally. This is despite emerging evidence that the socio-economic circumstances that people with disabilities live in contributes to their poorer health. Compared to other developed countries, Australians with disabilities are more likely to live in disadvantaged circumstances, despite being an economically prosperous country; it is therefore likely that the socio-economic disadvantage experienced by Australians with disabilities makes a significant contribution to their health. Despite the importance of this issue Australia does not routinely monitor the socio-economic inequalities for people with disabilities. This paper addresses this gap by describing time trends in socio-economic conditions for Australians with and without disabilities according to the severity of the disability and sex.
Cross-sectional analyses of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers were carried out at three time points (1998, 2003 and 2009) to estimate the proportions of women and men (aged between 25 and 64 years) who were living on low incomes, had not completed year 12, were not in paid work, living in private rental and experiencing multiple disadvantage (three or more of the indicators).
People with disabilities are less likely to have completed year 12, be in paid work and are more likely to be living on low incomes and experiencing multiple disadvantage. These conditions worsened with increasing severity of disability and increased or persisted over time, with most of the increase between 1998 and 2003. While women with milder disabilities tended to fare worse than men, the proportions were similar for those with moderate and severe/profound disabilities.
People with disabilities experience high levels of socio-economic disadvantage which has increased or persisted over time and these are likely to translate into poorer health outcomes. A large proportion experience multiple forms of disadvantage, reinforcing the need to tackle disadvantage in a coordinated way across sectors.People with disabilities should be a priority population group for public health. Monitoring socio-economic conditions of people with disabilities is critical for informing policy and assessing the impact of disability reforms.
在澳大利亚和国际上，残疾人的社会经济状况和健康在公共卫生研究、政策和实践中相对被忽视。尽管越来越多的证据表明，残疾人所生活的社会经济环境对他们的健康状况产生了不利影响。与其他发达国家相比，澳大利亚的残疾人更有可能生活在不利的环境中，尽管澳大利亚是一个经济繁荣的国家；因此，澳大利亚残疾人所经历的社会经济劣势很可能对他们的健康状况产生重大影响。尽管这个问题很重要，但澳大利亚并没有定期监测残疾人的社会经济不平等情况。本文通过描述根据残疾严重程度和性别，澳大利亚残疾人和非残疾人的社会经济状况的时间趋势来填补这一空白。
在三个时间点（1998 年、2003 年和 2009 年），对澳大利亚统计局残疾、老龄化和照顾者调查进行了横断面分析，以估计处于 25 至 64 岁年龄段的女性和男性中，有多少人生活在低收入水平、未完成 12 年级学业、没有从事有报酬的工作、居住在私人出租房中和经历多种劣势（三个或更多指标）的比例。
残疾人更有可能未完成 12 年级学业、没有从事有报酬的工作，并且更有可能生活在低收入水平并经历多种劣势。这些情况随着残疾程度的加重而恶化，并随着时间的推移而增加或持续存在，其中大部分增加发生在 1998 年至 2003 年之间。虽然轻度残疾的女性往往比男性更糟糕，但对于中度和重度/极重度残疾的女性来说，情况大致相同。
残疾人经历着高水平的社会经济劣势，这种劣势随着时间的推移而增加或持续存在，这很可能转化为更差的健康结果。很大一部分人经历多种形式的劣势，这就需要在跨部门协调一致地解决劣势问题。残疾人应该成为公共卫生的优先人群。监测残疾人的社会经济状况对于为政策提供信息和评估残疾改革的影响至关重要。
