Most disability-related scholarly literature focuses on high-income countries, whereas there is a lack of data concerning challenges and opportunities (participatory research and community engagement) in the global south. Moreover, most frameworks for interventions on PWDs have been designed for resource-rich contexts, and little is known about their translatability to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The main objective was to design and pilot an innovative interventional approach aimed at improving the livelihood of PWDs in LMICs.
- The Mixed Methods study conducted in Bamenda-Cameroon started with Formative research to gather experiences of families of PWDs and inform the design of the intervention through 8KII and 1FGD.
- Design of an evidence toolkit called the eBASE Family-Centered Evidence Toolkit for Disabilities (EFCETD), adapted from the WHO matrix, consisting of 43 questions across five categories (health, education, social wellbeing, empowerment, and livelihood).
- Household visits were carried out by community health workers using the EFCETD.
- Panel data was collected 3 times.
The mean percentile for education increased from 29.9% during the first visit to 70.2% during the last visit, while health increased from 65.4% to 78.7% and social wellbeing moved from 73.1% to 84.9%. The livelihood and the empowerment standards increased from 16.3% to 37.2%, and from 27.7% to 65.8%, respectively. Overall, the temporal trend was statistically significant (F=35.11, p<0.0001). The adjusted score increased from the baseline value of 45.02±2.38 to 61.07±2.25, 65.24±2.67, and 68.46±2.78, at 4, 8, and 12 months, respectively. Compared to baseline, all timepoints were significantly different, indicating a significant impact of the intervention, which became stable after 4 months and was preserved until 12 months.
PWDs faced many endeavors for sustainability and challenges resulting from a lack of inclusive policies leading to their exclusion from basic services and EIDM.
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