Prevalence of Physically Disabled Students in Rural Community

OBJECTIVE: To compare key-person method with census method on the prevalence of physically disabled students and to obtain the prevalence of the physically disabled students in rural community. METHOD: Total 4,890 students of 20 schools in Kyungaido province were surveyed in 1997. Two-thousands and twenty-two students of 8 schools were surveyed by a census method and 2,868 students of 12 schools by a key-person method. RESULTS: The prevalence of the physically disabled students in rural community was 0.53% of the population. The prevalence of the physically disabled students was 0.69% by a census method and 0.42% by a key-person method. This result suggests that there is no significant difference in the prevalence of physically disabled students between the two survey methods (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: A key-person method is as effective as a census method for prevalence survey of physically disabled students in rural communities because of cost effectiveness and less personnel.

A Survey of the Prevalence of Physically Disabled in the Community: Comparison of a key-person method with the census method

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficiency of a key-person method with the census method on the prevalence of physically disabled. METHOD: The residents of K-myeon, A-kyun, Kyungido were surveyed in May 1996 with a census method and of D-myeon in August 1997 with a key-person method. The enlisted people in this survey included 2563 persons in D-myeon and 2138 persons in K-myeon on Identification Number. RESULTS: The prevalences of the physically disabled were 2.61% of the population in D-myeon and 5.00% in K-myeon (chi-square test: P0.500). This result suggests that there is no meaningful difference in the prevalence of severely disabled between the two survey methods. CONCLUSION: The key-person method is as effective as the census method to survey the prevalence of severely disabled in rural communities and requires a less cost and man power.