title: Disabled women's attendance at community women's groups in rural Nepal.
abstract: There is strong evidence that participatory approaches to health and participatory women's groups hold great potential to improve the health of women and children in resource poor settings. It is important to consider if interventions are reaching the most marginalized, and therefore we examined disabled women's participation in women's groups and other community groups in rural Nepal. People with disabilities constitute 15% of the world's population and face high levels of poverty, stigma, social marginalization and unequal access to health resources, and therefore their access to women's groups is particularly important. We used a mixed methods approach to describe attendance in groups among disabled and non-disabled women, considering different types and severities of disability. We found no significant differences in the percentage of women that had ever attended at least one of our women's groups, between non-disabled and disabled women. This was true for women with all severities and types of disability, except physically disabled women who were slightly less likely to have attended. Barriers such as poverty, lack of family support, lack of self-confidence and attendance in many groups prevented women from attending groups. Our findings are particularly significant because disabled people's participation in broader community groups, not focused on disability, has been little studied. We conclude that women's groups are an important way to reach disabled women in resource poor communities. We recommend that disabled persons organizations help to increase awareness of disability issues among organizations running community groups to further increase their effectiveness in reaching disabled women.
authors.affiliation: Institute ofGlobal Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.affiliation: Institute ofGlobal Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Colbourn
authors.affiliation: Mother Infant Research Activities (MIRA) Nepal, PO Box 921, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Budhathoki
authors.affiliation: Mother Infant Research Activities (MIRA) Nepal, PO Box 921, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sen
authors.affiliation: Mother Infant Research Activities (MIRA) Nepal, PO Box 921, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Adhikari
authors.affiliation: Mother Infant Research Activities (MIRA) Nepal, PO Box 921, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bamjan
authors.affiliation: Mother Infant Research Activities (MIRA) Nepal, PO Box 921, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pathak
authors.affiliation: Mother Infant Research Activities (MIRA) Nepal, PO Box 921, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basnet
authors.affiliation: Leonard Cheshire Centre for Disability and Inclusive Development, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Trani
authors.affiliation: Institute ofGlobal Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Costello
authors.affiliation: Mother Infant Research Activities (MIRA) Nepal, PO Box 921, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Manandhar
authors.affiliation: Leonard Cheshire Centre for Disability and Inclusive Development, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Groce
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003256:Community Participation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009390:Nepal; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016387:Women's Health
keywords: access; community health promotion; participation; population health; public health intervention