Irish Health Survey 2019 - Persons with Disabilities

This chapter looks at the extent to which persons aged 55 years and over with disabilities (the definition of disability in this publication is those persons that have a lot of a difficulty with an activity (e.g. seeing) or cannot do the activity at all) for a range of physical and sensory difficulties encounter difficulties in personal care and household activities.

The list of personal care activities respondents were asked to consider are:

• Difficulty feeding
• Difficulty getting in and out of bed or a chair
• Difficulty dressing or undressing
• Difficulty using toilets
• Difficulty in bathing or showering

And the household activities to be considered are:

• Difficulty preparing meals
• Difficulty using the telephone
• Difficulty shopping
• Difficulty managing medication
• Difficulty doing light housework
• Difficulty doing occasional heavy housework
• Difficulty taking care of finances and everyday administrative tasks

What this chapter will highlight is that compared to the State average, persons with disabilities report higher levels of difficulty with personal care and household activities. Those with mobility difficulties and difficulties with remembering or concentrating, of those with disabilities, experience the most difficulties with personal care and household activities.

Physical and sensory difficulties

• Difficulty in seeing, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses
• Difficulty in hearing what is said in a conversation with one other person in a quiet room even when using a hearing aid
• Difficulty in hearing what is said in a conversation with one other person in a noisier room even when using a hearing aid
• Difficulty in walking half a km on level ground without the use of any aid
• Difficulty in walking up or down 12 steps
• Difficulty in remembering or concentrating

Over a third (37%) of persons with disabilities aged 55 years and over report they have at least one difficulty with a personal care activity (Feeding, Getting in and out of a bed or chair, Dressing or undressing, Using toilets and Bathing or showering). This is four times higher than the State average (9%) for persons aged 55 years and over. See Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1.

Of the different disability types, and across the different personal care activities, persons with Difficulty remembering or concentrating report the most difficulties with personal care activities, for example over half (53%) of them report difficulties with Bathing or showering. Over half (52%) of persons with Difficulty remembering or concentrating also report difficulties with Dressing or undressing. Persons with sight or hearing difficulties report the least difficulties with personal care activities. Difficulties with Getting in and out of bed or a chair or Bathing or showering are consistently the personal care activities persons with disabilities have the most difficulty with. See Table 3.2 and Figure 3.2.

At State level, a third of persons aged 55 years and over report at least some difficulties doing household activities. However, close to 8-in-10 (77%) of persons with disabilities aged 55 years and over report having difficulties with household activities, like housework, shopping and preparing meals. Persons who report a lot of difficulty with walking activities (or cannot do it at all) and with Difficulty remembering or concentrating report the highest levels for difficulties with household activities – at over 90% of persons in these disability groups. See Table 3.3 and Figure 3.3.

Across all the disability groups, Doing of occasional heavy housework is the household activity persons with disabilities have the most difficulty with, ranging from around half of those with hearing difficulties to 92% of those with Difficulty remembering or concentrating. Difficulty using the telephone (16% of those with a disability) and Difficulty managing medication (19% of those with a disability) are the household activities that persons with disabilities have the least difficulty with. See Table 3.4 and Figure 3.4.