Which Environmental Factors Have the Highest Impact on the Performance of People Experiencing Difficulties in Capacity?

Verena Loidl, Cornelia Oberhauser, Carolina Ballert, Michaela Coenen, Alarcos Cieza and Carla Sabariego
Additional contact information
Verena Loidl: Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology–IBE, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich 81377, Germany
Cornelia Oberhauser: Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology–IBE, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich 81377, Germany
Carolina Ballert: Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil 6207, Switzerland
Michaela Coenen: Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology–IBE, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich 81377, Germany
Alarcos Cieza: Blindness and Deafness Prevention, Disability and Rehabilitation (BDD), World Health Organization, Geneva 1211, Switzerland
Carla Sabariego: Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology–IBE, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich 81377, Germany

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: Disability is understood by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the outcome of the interaction between a health condition and personal and environmental factors. Comprehensive data about environmental factors is therefore essential to understand and influence disability. We aimed to identify which environmental factors have the highest impact on the performance of people with mild, moderate and severe difficulties in capacity, who are at risk of experiencing disability to different extents, using data from a pilot study of the WHO Model Disability Survey in Cambodia and random forest regression. Hindering or facilitating aspects of places to socialize in community activities, transportation and natural environment as well as use and need of personal assistance and use of medication on a regular basis were the most important environmental factors across groups. Hindering or facilitating aspects of the general environment were the most relevant in persons experiencing mild levels of difficulties in capacity, while social support, attitudes of others and use of medication on a regular basis were highly relevant for the performance of persons experiencing moderate to higher levels of difficulties in capacity. Additionally, we corroborate the high importance of the use and need of assistive devices for people with severe difficulties in capacity.

Keywords: environmental factors; international classification of functioning; disability and health; disability evaluation (MeSH); data collection (MeSH); health surveys (MeSH); capacity; performance; random forest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/416/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/416/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:4:p:416-:d:68027

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().