Physical disabilities in a post-war context in Jaffna society – a statistical review

Abstract

This study focuses on the nature of physical health conditions in post-war Jaffna society, which was carried out in 2014. This is a follow-up study of the original study named “Jaffna Socioeconomic Health Study 1999” (JSEHS-1999). The study subjects were husbands or / and wives of both single parent and two parents families. The sample of the study is the same as the sampled 1121 families of JSEHS-1999. A sub-sample of 1036 families from the original study is used. Altogether 1121 families were drawn using two-stage stratified sampling technique. An interviewer administrated questionnaire, similarly prepared with modification to the present situation, was employed to collect follow-up information on physical disability measures. In the present study, the general measure of physical fitness or disability employed was “mobility measure” that includes “Walking Conditions” and “Travelling Conditions”. The specific measures of physical disabilities were formulated in five dimensions, which are, “Behavior Disability”, “Communication Disability”, “Personal Care Disability”, “Body Disposition Disability” and “Situational Disability”. Socio- Economic variables employed to review the background were “Occupational Levels”, “Per Capita Income”, “Per Capita Expenditure”, “Per Capita Energy Consumption” and “Per Capita Protein Consumption”. The data collected on these variables were coded or modified according to the requirement of Statistical Analysis in this study. Exploratory data analysis, Factor analysis, Canonical correlation analysis and Canonical variate analysis were adopted to extract results in this study. The walking and travelling conditions of the parents have not shown any adverse effects in this post-war scenario. We report a severe effect in Behavioral Disability which is validated by a major factor “Disability in Self-awareness and knowledge acquisition” of 23% explanation. We further report a considerable effect in Communication Disability which is validated by a major factor “Disability in Writing and Symbolic Communication” of 22% explanation. The effect in Personal Care Disability is minimal, however two major factors “Disability in personal hygiene, clothing and feeding” for husbands and wives respectively shown 20% and 18% explanation. We also report that moderate effects in Body Disposition and Situational Disabilities are seen validated by two major factors “Disability in Household activity, Dependence & Environment” for husbands and wives each having 22% explanations. We also found and reported valid gender specific disability situations by factor analysis with higher percentage of explanations. Canonical correlation analysis revealed that all the above described disability measures under combined dimensions are highly or moderately correlated which show meaningful disability analysis with validated results. We also highlighted socioeconomic influence in various physical disabilities using Canonical Discriminant analysis and Cluster analysis to form meaningful clusters of couples or families indicating distinctions by socioeconomic influences.