Unmet Needs and Use of Assistive Products in Two Districts of Bangladesh: Findings from a Household Survey

Pryor, Wesley; Nguyen, Liem; Islam, Qumrun Naher; Jalal, Faruk Ahmed; Marella, Manjula

doi:10.3390/ijerph15122901

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Unmet Needs and Use of Assistive Products in Two Districts of Bangladesh: Findings from a Household Survey

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Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh

Handicap International—Humanity & Inclusion, Gulshan-1 1212 Bangladesh

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2901; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122901

Received: 21 September 2018 / Revised: 13 December 2018 / Accepted: 14 December 2018 / Published: 18 December 2018

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disability and Global Health)

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Abstract

Access to assistive products (AP) is an under-researched public health issue. Using an adaptation of a draft World Health Organization tool—the ‘Assistive Technology Assessment—Needs (ATA-N)’ for measuring unmet needs and use of AP, we aimed to understand characteristics of AP users, self-reported needs and unmet needs for AP, and current access patterns in Bangladesh. The ATA-N was incorporated in a Rapid Assessment of Disability (RAD), a population-based survey to estimate prevalence and correlates of disability. In each of two unions of Kurigram and Narsingdi districts, 60 clusters of 50 people each aged two years and older were selected using a two-staged cluster random sampling process, of whom, 4250 (59% Female; 41% Male) were adults, including 333 using AP. We estimate 7.1% of the studied population used any AP. AP use is positively associated with age and self-reported functional difficulty. The proportion of people using AP is higher for mobility than for sensory and cognitive difficulties. Of all people with any functional difficulty, 71% self-reported an unmet need for AP. Most products were home or self-made, at low cost, but provided benefits. Needs and unmet needs for AP are high, especially for people with greater functional difficulties. Assessing unmet needs for AP revealed important barriers to scale that can inform policy and practice. View Full-Text

Keywords: assistive products; assistive technology; disability; LMIC; Bangladesh

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MDPI and ACS Style

Pryor, W.; Nguyen, L.; Islam, Q.N.; Jalal, F.A.; Marella, M. Unmet Needs and Use of Assistive Products in Two Districts of Bangladesh: Findings from a Household Survey. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 2901. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122901

AMA Style

Pryor W, Nguyen L, Islam QN, Jalal FA, Marella M. Unmet Needs and Use of Assistive Products in Two Districts of Bangladesh: Findings from a Household Survey. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018; 15(12):2901. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122901

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pryor, Wesley, Liem Nguyen, Qumrun N. Islam, Faruk A. Jalal, and Manjula Marella. 2018. "Unmet Needs and Use of Assistive Products in Two Districts of Bangladesh: Findings from a Household Survey" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 15, no. 12: 2901. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122901

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Unmet Needs and Use of Assistive Products in Two Districts of Bangladesh: Findings from a Household Survey

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