Jamali-Phiri Monica, Ebuenyi Ikenna D, Smith Emma M, Kafumba Juba Alyce, MacLachlan Malcolm, Munthali Alister
Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi.
Assisting Living & Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, W23 F2K8 Maynooth, Ireland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 16;18(6):3062. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18063062.
This paper aims to address the information gap on the influence of socio-demographic factors on access and utilization of Assistive Technology (AT) among children with disabilities in Malawi. Thus, it contributes towards the realization of the recommendations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities and the development of a framework for creating an effective national AT policy. The paper used two statistically matched datasets, namely, the 2017 survey on Living conditions among persons with disabilities in Malawi and the 2015-16 Malawi Demographic and Health survey. Logistic regression and structural equation modeling techniques were utilized to assess the influence of socio-demographic factors on the use of AT among children with disabilities. The results indicate that there is a high level of unmet need for AT among young children aged 2 to 9 and those living in urban areas. The results further indicate that children with multiple disabilities have lower odds (OR = 0.924) of using AT for personal mobility compared to children with a single functional difficulty. These results entail that AT needs for children with multiple disabilities are not adequately addressed. Therefore, when developing policies on AT, younger children and those with multiple disabilities need to be specifically targeted.
本文旨在填补关于社会人口因素对马拉维残疾儿童辅助技术（AT）的获取和使用影响方面的信息空白。因此，它有助于实现《联合国残疾人权利公约》的建议，并推动制定一个有效的国家辅助技术政策框架。本文使用了两个经统计匹配的数据集，即2017年马拉维残疾人生活状况调查和2015 - 2016年马拉维人口与健康调查。运用逻辑回归和结构方程建模技术来评估社会人口因素对残疾儿童使用辅助技术的影响。结果表明，2至9岁的幼儿以及居住在城市地区的残疾儿童对辅助技术的需求未得到满足的程度很高。结果还表明，与仅有单一功能困难的儿童相比，多重残疾儿童使用辅助技术进行个人移动的几率较低（OR = 0.924）。这些结果意味着多重残疾儿童的辅助技术需求未得到充分解决。因此，在制定辅助技术政策时，需要特别针对年幼儿童和多重残疾儿童。
