Disabilities

Factsheet: Spinal cord injury

Key Facts

• Every year, around the world, between 250 000 and 500 000 people suffer a spinal cord injury (SCI).
• The majority of spinal cord injuries are due to preventable causes such as road traffic crashes, falls or violence.
• People with a spinal cord injury are two to five times more likely to die prematurely than people without a spinal cord injury, with worse survival rates in low- and middle-income countries.
• Spinal cord injury is associated with lower rates of school enrollment and economic participation, and it carries substantial individual and societal costs.

Factsheet: Disability and health

Key Facts

• Over a billion people, about 15% of the world's population, have some form of disability.
• Between 110 million and 190 million adults have significant difficulties in functioning.
• Rates of disability are increasing due to population ageing and increases in chronic health conditions, among other causes.
• People with disabilities have less access to health care services and therefore experience unmet health care needs.

Disability is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Impairments are problems in body functions or structures while activity limitations are difficulties encountered by an individual in executing tasks or actions. Problems experienced by an individual in life situations are called participation restrictions.

In other words, disability is not just one health problem. It is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives.

Disability is more common among women, older people, children and adults who are poor. People with disabilities often have less education and have deprived living conditions—including insufficient food, poor housing, lack of access to safe water and sanitation. This causes disabled individuals to have the highest risks for infectious and non-infectious diseases.

People with disabilities often do not receive the needed health care and approximately half cannot afford it. Data from four countries in the Region found that only 26% to 55% of people received the medical rehabilitation they needed, while only 17% to 37% received the assistive devices they needed such as wheelchairs, prostheses and hearing aids.