Rosberg Petersson Johanna, Tistad Malin, Muller Sébastien, Calvo Irene, Borg Johan
School of Health and Welfare, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden.
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
Front Rehabil Sci. 2025 Jul 8;6:1617624. doi: 10.3389/fresc.2025.1617624. eCollection 2025.
Despite being a fundamental human right, access to assistive products varies between 3% and 90% across countries. Ensuring adequate and trained human resources is a prerequisite for improving access to assistive products. To support workforce planning and development, this study estimated the global workforce required for assistive technology provision to achieve a high level of access.
This modeling study used estimates of the primary workforce for assistive technology provision and assistive product needs in a country with a high level of access and global assistive product needs, to predict the global workforce required to provide assistive technology in five product domains: cognition and communication, hearing, mobility and self-care, orthotics and prosthetics, and vision. The assistive product need estimates were based on self-reported data from WHO Rapid Assistive Technology Assessment surveys in 28 countries.
A total workforce for assistive technology provision of 4.4 (95% CI: 3.0-6.8) million full-time equivalents (FTE) would be required globally to achieve a high level of access to assistive products. Excluding the administrative workforce, this includes a workforce of 3.4 (2.3-5.4) million FTE, composed of 1.7 (1.3-2.2) million FTE providing mobility and self-care products, 0.9 (0.5-1.7) million FTE providing orthoses and prostheses, 0.5 (0.2-1.0) million FTE providing vision products, 0.3 (0.2-0.4) million FTE providing hearing products, and 0.05 (0.04-0.06) million FTE providing cognition and communication products.
Likely a conservative estimate of the required workforce size, this provides a cautious foundation for informing strategies to develop a workforce capable of meeting global assistive product needs and improving access.
尽管获得辅助产品是一项基本人权，但各国之间获得辅助产品的比例在3%至90%之间不等。确保拥有充足且训练有素的人力资源是改善辅助产品可及性的先决条件。为支持劳动力规划与发展，本研究估算了提供辅助技术以实现高可及性水平所需的全球劳动力数量。
这项建模研究利用了一个高可及性国家辅助技术提供的主要劳动力估计数以及辅助产品需求，结合全球辅助产品需求，来预测在五个产品领域提供辅助技术所需的全球劳动力数量：认知与沟通、听力、行动与自我护理、矫形器与假肢以及视力。辅助产品需求估计数基于世界卫生组织在28个国家进行的快速辅助技术评估调查的自我报告数据。
全球需要440万（95%可信区间：300万至680万）全职等效人员（FTE）的劳动力来提供辅助技术，以实现辅助产品的高可及性水平。不包括行政人员，这包括340万（230万至540万）FTE的劳动力，其中170万（130万至220万）FTE提供行动与自我护理产品，90万（50万至170万）FTE提供矫形器与假肢，50万（20万至100万）FTE提供视力产品，30万（20万至40万）FTE提供听力产品，以及5万（4万至6万）FTE提供认知与沟通产品。
这可能是所需劳动力规模的保守估计，为制定能够满足全球辅助产品需求并改善可及性的劳动力发展战略提供了谨慎的基础。
