Resources search

Physical Activity of the Community- Dwelling Elderly Population in Gujarat, India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Patel, Samira Sirajulhak
Gupta, Nalina
Parmar, Lata
2020

Expand view

Purpose: While ageing is an inevitable phenomenon of life, physical activity is important for healthy ageing. Compared to the other age groups, older adults throughout the world have the lowest rate of participation in recommended levels of physical activity. This study aimed to investigate the physical activity status of the community-dwelling elderly population in Gujarat, India.

 

Method: This was a cross-sectional study. A door-to-door survey was conducted among selected communities near Vadodara in Gujarat. Based on the inclusion criteria (age≥60years, MMSE-≥24), 347 elderly persons were included in the study. Data was collected using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ), and analysed using descriptive statistics.

 

Results: Among the 347 older adults (mean age 67.43±7.46 years) who participated in the study, 159 were male and 188 were female. While 125 participants (36%) were physically active at levels recommended by the World Health Organisation, 222(64%) were physically inactive.

 

Conclusion: Only 36% of the participants were physically active as per WHO recommendations. The men were more physically active than the women in the study sample. This study implies that there is a need to create an awareness regarding the importance of physical activity for healthy aging.

Decolonizing schools: Women organizing, disability advocacy, and land in Sāmoa

ANESI, Julianne
2019

Expand view

In the 1970s and 1980s, Sāmoan women organizers established Aoga Fiamalamalama and Loto Taumafai, two educational institutions, in the independent state of Sāmoa. This article examines these schools’ support of students labelled as ma’i (sick), specifically those with intellectual and physical disabilities. Through oral histories and archival research, I show the vital role performed by the women organizers in changing the educational system by drawing attention to the exclusion of disabled students. I focus on the collective labor of Sāmoan women and their influence in decolonizing schools. In this regard, the women organizers used Sāmoan concepts of fa’a Sāmoa (culture), fanua (land), and tautua (service) as ways to redefine the commitment of the education system. This is a story about daring to reimagine indigenous disabled bodies and their futures through knowledge systems, theory, and literature.

 

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2019, Vol. 6 No. 1

Adolescents with disabilities: Enhancing resilience and delivering inclusive development

JONES, Nicola
PRESLER-MARSHALL, Elizabeth
STAVROPOLULOU, Maria
July 2018

Expand view

This report takes stock of evidence from LMICs, drawing on findings from a thematic evidence review combined with emerging findings from the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) survey and qualitative research baseline studies in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Jordan and Palestine. These interviews involved more than 6,000 adolescents and their caregivers – including approximately 600 girls and boys with physical, visual, hearing or intellectual impairments, alongside service providers and policy actors. The report draws attention to the multiple and intersecting capabilities that need to be supported in order for adolescents with disabilities in LMICs to reach their full potential. It goes beyond a focus on their access to education and health services, and also considers their rights to psychosocial wellbeing, protection from violence, mobility and opportunities to participate within their communities, as well the skills, assets and support they need to become economically independent once they transition into adulthood. 

Disability, health and human development

MITRA, Sophie
2018

Expand view

This open access book introduces the human development model to define disability and map its links with health and wellbeing, based on Sen’s capability approach. The author uses panel survey data with internationally comparable questions on disability for Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. It presents evidence on the prevalence of disability and its strong and consistent association with multidimensional poverty, mortality, economic insecurity and deprivations in education, morbidity and employment. It shows that disability needs to be considered from multiple angles including aging, gender, health and poverty. Ultimately, this study makes a call for inclusion and prevention interventions as solutions to the deprivations associated with impairments and health conditions.

 

Chapters include:

  • The Human Development Model of Disability, Health and Wellbeing
  • Measurement, Data and Country Context
  • Prevalence of Functional Difficulties
  • Functional Difficulties and Inequalities Through a Static Lens
  • Dynamics of Functional Difficulties and Wellbeing
  • Main Results and Implications

 

Risk factors for participation restriction in leprosy and development of a screening tool to identify individuals at risk

NICHOLLS, PG
et al
December 2005

Expand view

This paper explores risk factors for participation restrictions experienced by people affected by leprosy. The objective was to develop a screening tool to identify individuals at risk. An initial round of qualitative fieldwork in eight centres in Nepal, India and Brazil identified 35 potential risk factors for participation restriction. This was further assessed through quantitative fieldwork in six centres in India and Brazil. In all, 264 individuals receiving leprosy treatment or rehabilitation services made a retrospective assessment of their status at time of diagnosis. Their level of participation restriction was assessed using the Participation Scale, and regression analysis identified risk factors for participation restriction. Four consolidated items were identified as the basis for a simple screening tool to identify individuals at risk: physical impact of leprosy, an emotional response to the diagnosis, female gender and having little or no education. Such a tool may form the basis for a screening and referral procedure to identify newly diagnosed individuals at risk of participation restrictions and the need of actions that may prevent such restrictions
Leprosy Review, Vol 76, Issue 4

Envisioning new meanings of disability and difference

YWCA PETERBOROUGH
et al

Expand view

This website presents information about The Envisioning project where women living with disabilities and physical differences took part in arts-based workshops. Project participants created images of disability and difference that challenge the viewer to question the "less than" or "better than" judgments made regarding physical appearance and to explore alternative ideas of disability and difference. The artists’ stories and images are presented, as well as general information about the project

E-bulletin