Unearthing hidden disabilities: estimating functional disability burden among university students in Ghana

Abstract

World Health Organization has supported the broad conception of disability and developed a standardized tool/scale which could be used to estimate burden of disability/activity limitations in society. However, to the best of our knowledge, empirical evidence on disability burden among young adults has been largely limited to western contexts only. The current study aimed to estimate functional disability burden among young university students in Ghana. A total of 1200 undergraduate students completed the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 which comprises 36 items and divided into six domains: cognitive domain, getting around, self-care, getting along with people, life activities and participation in society. While 60.7% of the participants were females (n = 728), 39.3% were males (n = 477). The ages of the participants ranged from 18 years to 31 years. The data were analysed using means, frequency counts, t-test and analysis of variances. The result showed mild to moderate functional disability burden among young university students. Moreover, moderate to profound incidence of disability burden were found in life activities, getting around and self-care. Differences were noted between participants on age, gender and engagement in regular exercise. The study concludes with a recommendation for promoting disability screening as part of effort towards lessening disability burden among young university students in Ghana.