Disability and rehabilitation
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To understand the journey of care in the prevention and management of secondary health conditions (SHCs) following spinal cord injury (SCI). ⋯ • Secondary health conditions are problematic for individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI). • This study aimed to understand the journey of care in the prevention and management of secondary health conditions (SHCs) following SCI. • Findings suggest that the journey is challenging and a persistent uphill struggle for persons with SCI, care providers, and community-based advocates. • All stakeholders involved recognized the disparities in access to care and resources that exist within the system. We recommend that if we are to make significant gains in minimizing the incidence and severity of SHCs, we need to tailor efforts at the health system level.
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How many people with disabilities are in the world? How is disability defined? How can we measure disability in an accurate and comparable way? These are some of the key questions which the recently published World Bank/WHO World Report on Disability (WRD) addresses. ⋯ To improve the quality of disability information, the World Report recommends the use of a common definition and concepts of disability based on WHO's International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF). Furthermore, disability measurement needs to apply a multidimensional approach, in particular, measuring disability in terms of the level of difficulty a person is experiencing in multiple areas of life, rather than head counting severe impairment types in a dichotomous way. Environmental factors have significant effects on individual functioning and should be considered as an integral part in disability measurement.