Background to the Research

• This report focuses on the prevalence and severity of disability amongst adults in NI. The first of seven reports, this series partly replicates the survey work carried out by OPCS (now ONS) in the 1980s.

Research Approach

• All disabilities arising from physical, mental or affective disorders were included in the survey. Separate surveys were carried out for those living in private households and those living in communal establishments. For the household sample, 40,000 addresses were selected at random and sent a self-completion questionnaire to screen household members for even minor health problems or disabilities. A random sample of the returns was selected for interview (where it appeared that a household member might have some disability).

Main Findings

• It is estimated that 201,000 adults in NI have a disability, of whom 13,000 live in a communal residence (nursing home, residential home or hospital ward). This translates to the highest rate of disability in the United Kingdom with an overall rate of 174 per thousand, compared with 142 per thousand in Britain.
• The rate for the most severe category of disability is 20 per thousand.
• The rate of disability increases with age. While only 85 people per thousand in the 16-59 age group are disabled, 740 people per thousand aged 75 or more were estimated to suffer from one or more disabilities.
• NI has a higher disability rate than for Britain across all levels of severity. When the figures are standardised to take account of the different age profile in the two regions, the gap between the rate of disability in NI and Britain widens from 32 per thousand to 50 per thousand.
• It is estimated that there are 118,000 disabled women in the population compared with 83,000 disabled men. The difference is partly explained by the greater longevity of women and the association of disability with age. However in the over 75 age group the rate of disability amongst women is much higher than amongst men. It may be that males are more likely to die younger as a result of their impairments - leaving an apparently healthy cohort behind them.
• The most common disability is in locomotion, followed by hearing disabilities.