Publication:

Perceived health versus perceived disability among individuals with lower limb amputation and its associating factors: evidence from an exploratory study in Mumbai and Kolkata, India

Background Self-rated health (SRH) has been used to predict the perception of health in objective measures. Understanding the perception of disability goes beyond simple perception of health. Lower limb amputation and locomotors disability has been studied in various aspects, however, measurement of the extent of disability in a single term has hardly been done. This study aims to find the difference between perceived health (SRH) and perceived disability self-rated disability (SRD) and its association with demographic and socio-economic factors.

Methods A primary study has been conducted on 270 adult lower limb amputees in Mumbai and Kolkata following mixed methodology approach. Descriptive statistics, correlations and narration were used to measure the SRH and SRD among individuals with lower limb amputation.

Results The 63% of respondents have achieved good SRH, while only 43% have achieved good SRD. Prosthetics satisfaction, perceived support, perceived body shape, and level of education influence the SRH and SRD. Health components explain SRH, whereas, functional components explain SRD more.

Conclusions SRD can be better in analyzing the coping with the disability status, and promoting the role of health care and rehabilitation programs. It can be used not only for the population having disability, but in a larger population with functional restrictions that can be used to address the health care need.