Thapa Naba Raj, Subedi Govind, Kc Vikash Kumar
Department of Population Studies, Ratna Rajyalaxmi Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
BMC Public Health. 2025 Feb 21;25(1):720. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-21672-0.
Older people are more vulnerable and have a higher risk of having a disability. There are very few studies on disability among older people in Nepal. To fill this knowledge and research gap, this study examines the prevalence and analyzes sociodemographic correlates of disability among older people in Nepal.
The 2022 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey data was used for this study. The study included 3014 older people aged 60 years and above. The Washington Group Short Set Questions were used to measure disability. Disability was categorized as 'with disability' and 'without disability'. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the prevalence of disability while multivariate logistic regression was used as inferential statistics to analyze sociodemographic correlates of disability.
The results show that more than a quarter (27%) of older people had disabilities. The prevalence of disability was higher among older people aged 80 years and above (54%), females (31%), no education (31%), widowed (40%), residing in Karnali province (39%), and those who belonged to poor household wealth (31%). This pattern was consistent in both older males and females. Older people aged 70-79 or 80 years and above, those who had no education or primary education and who were widowed, were more likely to have a disability. Older people from rich household wealth and from Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Sudurpashchim provinces were less likely to have a disability.
The burden of disability among older people in Nepal is considerable. Therefore, there is a need for health interventions targeting the identified groups at risk of disability to improve the well-being of older people.
老年人更加脆弱，残疾风险更高。尼泊尔针对老年人残疾情况的研究非常少。为填补这一知识和研究空白，本研究调查了尼泊尔老年人残疾的患病率，并分析了其社会人口学相关因素。
本研究使用了2022年尼泊尔人口与健康调查数据。研究纳入了3014名60岁及以上的老年人。采用华盛顿小组简短问题集来衡量残疾情况。残疾被分为“有残疾”和“无残疾”两类。描述性统计用于评估残疾患病率，而多变量逻辑回归则作为推断性统计方法来分析残疾的社会人口学相关因素。
结果显示，超过四分之一（27%）的老年人存在残疾。80岁及以上的老年人（54%）、女性（31%）、未受过教育者（31%）、丧偶者（40%）、居住在卡纳利省者（39%）以及属于贫困家庭财富者（31%）的残疾患病率更高。这种模式在老年男性和女性中都是一致的。70 - 79岁或80岁及以上、未受过教育或仅接受过小学教育且丧偶的老年人更有可能残疾。来自富裕家庭财富以及来自科希、马德西、巴格马蒂、甘达基、蓝毗尼和苏都尔帕希姆省的老年人残疾可能性较小。
尼泊尔老年人的残疾负担相当大。因此，有必要针对已确定的有残疾风险的群体开展健康干预措施，以改善老年人的福祉。
