Demographics of wheelchair users in France: results of national community-based handicaps-incapacités-dépendance surveys.
OBJECTIVE
To highlight the prevalence of manual and/or powered wheelchair use within the general French population living at home or in institutions, to describe the users and to identify factors determining wheelchair use.


METHODS
Data were obtained from national community-based Handicaps-Incapacités-Dépendance surveys on disability and dependency carried out on 2 representative samples of the French population in institutions (n = 15,288) and at home (n = 16,945).


RESULTS
The prevalence of wheelchair use is 62 per 10,000 people living in France. Forty-three percent of users live in institutions. They frequently show multiple impairments and severe disabilities. They have a mean age of 70 years and 64% are women. After taking confounding factors into account, results show that wheelchair use is not sex-related and decreases slightly with age. On the other hand, wheelchair use is related to widowhood, to the extent of impairments and disabilities, to confinement, to exposure to environmental obstacles and to institutional life.


CONCLUSIONS
Sociodemographic studies on the use of wheelchairs need to pay greater attention to people living in institutions. The prevalence of wheelchair use in France appears to be far lower than in other western countries, and this observation needs to be examined further with intercultural comparisons.
Vignier
Nicolas
N
Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale , Cermes, U750, IFR25, France.
Ravaud
Jean-François
JF
Winance
Myriam
M
Lepoutre
François-Xavier
FX
Ville
Isabelle
I
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014910:Wheelchairs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data