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

ABSTRACT

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.