KB participated in the design of the study, carried out the research, reviewed study results, and provided senior review of the manuscript. JG participated sellectchem in the design of the study, reviewed study results, and provided senior review of the manuscript. SDC participated in the design of the study, assisted with the data analysis, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Authors�� information JLM and SDC are employees of RTI Health Solutions, a research organization hired by AstraZeneca to conduct the analysis described in this manuscript. Neither JLM nor SDC have any competing interests to declare. SP is an employee of AstraZeneca. KB and JG are employees of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Acknowledgments This study was funded and conceived by AstraZeneca.
The study design was developed in consultation with AstraZeneca, and results were reviewed by AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca did not influence the interpretation of results. The manuscript was reviewed by AstraZeneca prior to publication.
Current literature shows that people with a disability have a lower income than people without a disability. Disabled people often experience difficulties with health care access. The objective of this study is to assess the current financial situation and poverty rate amongst disabled people in Flanders. Furthermore we wanted to analyze factors that contribute to the risk of poverty and problems with financial health care access in adult people with a disability in Flanders.
Methods An online and paper survey were constructed and made available through two large organizations for people with different types of disability in Flanders. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were performed. Results In this convenience sample, 20.9% of the 889 respondents live under the poverty threshold. Important contributing factors to the risk of poverty are having children (OR 3.43, 95% CI 2.10-5.59) and a low level of dependence (OR 16.40, 95% CI 6.21-43.28). 25.2% of the respondents did not access health care because of financial shortcomings. A low level of dependence is one important contributing factor (OR 3.16, 95% CI 1.41-6.98) to limited financial health care access. Conclusion This research confirms that disability is associated with a higher risk of poverty and impaired financial health care access.
Background International research on poverty and health care accessibility among disabled people is scarce [1]. Current literature shows that people with a disability have a lower income than people who Drug_discovery are not disabled [1,2]. Furthermore people with impaired access to health care tend to be in worse health and with lower income [3,4]. In Belgium as well as in the EU-25, ��too expensive�� is the main reason for having perceived unmet medical needs [5].