Census Analytical Report - Uganda Bureau of Statistics

Analytical ReportThe 2002 Census definition includes epilepsy and chronic arthritis (which was referredto as rheumatism) which are internationally classified as chronic illnesses. This isbecause of their high occurrence and association with social stigma which may lead toisolation and limited social participation.Traditionally, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Uganda lived with their relatives in afamily setup. With colonisation, institutionalisation was introduced. There have beendramatic changes in approaches to disability over the past 30 years. In Africa, in the1980s there was a global initiative by disabled people, ‘Nothing for us without us’.Uganda Government reflected the changes at global level and embraced theCommunity Based Rehabilitation’ (CBR) approach, but recognised that institutions arestill important for the holistic rehabilitation of some PWDsThe NorthernRegion hadthe highestdisability rate9.4.1 Prevalence of DisabilityTable 9.20 shows that there were 838,000 persons with a disability in 2002. Therewere more Persons with Disabilities in the Northern and Eastern regions compared toother regions. The Northern Region had the highest prevalence of disability (4.8percent) while the Western region has the lowest (2.9 percent). Eastern and Centralregions had rates of 3.6 percent and 3.1 percent respectively. Of all the PWDs, 108thousand had multiple disabilities.The nationaldisabilityprevalence ratewas 3.5 percentThe table shows that 3.5 percent of the population had disabilities compared to 3.3percent using the International definition. The rate in 2002 was higher than 1.1 percentobtained from the 1991 census. This apparent increase in the prevalence of disabilitymay be partly due to improvements in the method of data collection used in the 2002census. The prevalence of disability varied across the country.Table 9.20: Distribution of Persons with Disabilities by RegionPersons with DisabilityPersons with MultipleDisabilityRegionPopulation(‘000s)Number(‘000’)Percent Number(‘000’)Percent of AllPWDSCentral 6,572 205 3.1 29 14.1Central (excl5,385 186 3.5 27 14.7Kampala)Eastern 6,203 224 3.6 28 12.7Northern 4,770 227 4.8 27 12.1Western 6,296 182 2.9 24 13.1Total 23,841 838 3.5 109 12.9The Disability rates show that the prevalence of disability increases with age (Figure9.5). It ranges from 3 percent for the age group 5-9 and raises steadily to 5 percent forthe age group 35 to 39.119