Research PaperIntersections between disability, type of impairment, gender and socio-economic disadvantage in a nationally representative sample of 33,101 working-aged Australians
Section snippets
Disability and socio-economic disadvantage
Australians with disabilities have higher levels of socio-economic disadvantage than people with disabilities in economically similar countries. For example, adult Australians with a disability earn on average 68% of the income of those without disabilities – the lowest relative income of the 27 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).1
Gender and disability
Although the overall prevalence of disabilities is similar for women and men in Australia (women 19%, men 18%),22 disabilities are gendered in their acquisition and possibly their enactment.23 For example, dominant norms of masculinity, such as risk-taking, place men at higher risk of accidents that may result in physical impairments. Men are more likely to be employed in manual jobs and so have higher risk of exposure to physical and chemical hazards.24 Women have higher rates of depression
Data source
We analyzed the Confidentialised Unit Record File (CURF) of the 2009 SDAC survey, a cross-sectional national survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) from April to December 2009.42 The primary objective of the survey was to collect data on people who had a disability or long-term health condition and people aged 60 years and over, through face-to-face interviews with trained interviewers. The SDAC was conducted using a stratified multi-stage sample of individuals living in
Results
The sample consisted of 33,101 people (16,533 women and 16,568 men).
Statement of principal findings
People with disabilities fared worse for every indicator of socio-economic disadvantage compared to people without disability, with the exception of housing vulnerability for women and men with sensory and speech impairments, and low income for women with intellectual impairments. Women and men with intellectual and psychological impairments and acquired brain injuries were at particularly high risk of disadvantage. There were extremely high levels of inequality in paid employment; for example
Conclusion
In sum, we found that levels of socio-economic disadvantage were high for people with all impairment types, with those with psychological and intellectual impairments and acquired brain injuries being most disadvantaged. The areas of most concern are education and employment, which have flow-on effects to income, housing and health. From a public health perspective, improving the socio-economic conditions of people with disabilities should reduce disability-based health inequalities and reduce
Acknowledgments
We thank our partners Women with Disabilities Victoria, Hanover Welfare Services and VicHealth for their input into this work.
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Conflict of interest statement: All authors have read and agreed to the final manuscript, have no conflicts of interest. The manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere.
Funding: This research is funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Grants “The importance of gender and socio-economic disadvantage for the mental health of people living with disabilities” (grant LP100200545), “New directions in health inequalities research: Understanding the intersection between housing, employment and health in Australia” (grant LP100200182) and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Strategic Award “Changing Patterns of Work: Impacts on Physical and Mental Health and the Mediating Roles of Resiliency and Social Capital” (grant 375196).