The study of geographic differences in the prevalence of disability among Taiwanese population

The present study analyzes data of the governmental reported general population and population of persons with disabilities from 2002 to 2009, to describe the disability prevalence and to test the overtime change with particular focused on the geographic differences in Taiwan. In average, the disability prevalence was 42.06‰ (range = 31.06‰-80.04‰ in different areas) of the general population during the past 8 years. We found that the disability prevalence in general population (R² = 0.991; p < 0.001), disability prevalence in men (R² = 0.992; p < 0.001) and in women (R² = 0.991; p < 0.001) were significantly increased in curve tests of the study. The disability number were more populous in north or west urban areas (such as Taipei County, Taipei City, Taoyuan County, Taichung County, Kaohsiung City), however, those areas of higher disability prevalence were more likely to locate in east and central remote areas (such as Taitung County = 80.04‰; Yunlin County = 71.95‰; Hualien County = 71.59‰; Chiayi County = 63.51‰ and Yilan County = 59.91‰). The study highlights that the uneven distribution of disability prevalence will bring challenges of health and social welfare services for this group of population. We suggest the authorities should scrutinize the disparity of disability prevalence in different geographic area to examine the equality of social welfare resources distribution in Taiwan.