Long term trend analysis of geographical disparity in aging and disability: Taiwanese population approach.
Taiwan’s rural east and central counties show the sharpest rise in elderly disability, echoing the same geographic gaps seen in child data.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Yong-Chen et al. (2012) looked at Taiwan’s national disability registry from 2000 to 2010. They asked where disability is rising fastest among people over 65.
They mapped every county and saw the steepest climbs in the rural east and central mountains.
What they found
Disability among older adults went up across the whole island. The hot spots stayed in the same eastern and central counties every year.
No intervention was tested; the paper is pure demographics.
How this fits with other research
Lai et al. (2013) used the same registry and saw the same decade-long rise, but for kids instead of seniors. Both studies show Taiwan’s rural areas carry the heaviest load at every age.
Lin et al. (2012) tracked early-intervention sign-ups for 0- to 5-year-olds. Uptake grew, yet rural counties still lag 2.5-fold behind cities. The child gap mirrors the elder hot spots Yong-Chen mapped.
Lai et al. (2020) narrowed in on childhood visual impairment. Rural rates started higher but slowly caught up to urban, hinting that some gaps can shrink when services expand.
Why it matters
If you serve Taiwanese clients, expect more referrals from eastern and central counties. Push for tele-supervision, mobile clinics, or travel stipends so rural RBTs can stay in the field. Use the county maps to justify extra funding when you write grant proposals next quarter.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Purposes of the present paper were to describe the overtime change of disability prevalence among the elderly (65 years and older), and to analyze the geographic disparity of the disability prevalence during the year 2000-2010 in Taiwan. Study data mainly come from two public web-access information: (1) The physically and mentally disabled population by age and grade, 2000-2010; (2) Taiwan general population by age, 2000-2010. We used statistical methods include number, percentage and geographical information system (GIS) to describe the disability prevalence among the elderly people by year and administrative area, and a trend test was conducted to examine the overtime change of disability prevalence in the elderly people. The results found that the mean of disability prevalence rate in the elderly population was 14.8% and it was significantly increased during the past 11 years (R(2) = 0.901; p < 0.0001). With regards to the elderly disability prevalence disparity in administrative areas, those areas of higher elderly disability prevalence were more likely to occur in east-mountain areas-Taitung County (24.2%), Yilan County (21.0%), Hualien County (20.3%), and central-agricultural counties such as Yunlin County (21.8%), Nantou County (17.6%) and Chiayi County (17.3%). The most relative change areas of disability prevalence rate in the elderly population during the past 11 years were more likely to occur in central or east areas in Taiwan. The present study highlights the authorities should pay much attention to increasing rate and the geographical disparity of disability prevalence in the elderly population, to allocate appropriate health and welfare resources for this vulnerable population.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2012 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.10.014