A Study on Changes in Disability Acceptance and Influencing Factors Among Elderly People with Disabilities in South Korea

Background and Purpose: Korean society is rapidly transitioning into an aging society, and this phenomenon is also true for the disabled population. The aging of the disabled is progressing two to three times faster than that of the general population, and the proportion of the disabled population over 50 currently accounts for more than half of the total disabled population. Elderly individuals with disabilities are a group that experiences both disability and aging, and how they accept disability is directly related to their life in old age. Besides, elderly people with disabilities can be classified into Aging with disability(AWD) and Disability with aging(DWA) according to the time of occurrence of disabilities, so they can show differences in the degree of acceptance of disabilities according to each characteristic or other factors. Therefore, this study examines the changing types of disability acceptance of elderly individuals with disabilities and identifies the influencing factors to understand the characteristics of each type.

Methods: This study used data from the 2nd wave of the Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled, conducted from the 1st (2016) to the 6th (2021), to examine the disability acceptance among elderly individuals with disabilities aged 55 years or older. To explore the types of change, Latent Profile Growth Analysis (LPGA), which applied a growth mixture model, was used. In addition, to identify the characteristics of each type, the study classified them into personal, disability, psychological, and social/environmental factors and verified them through logistic regression analysis.

Results: The changing types of disability acceptance of the elderly with disabilities were divided into two types, the "decreasing group" and the "sustaining group." Next, logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify predictors for each type. As a result of comparing the "decreasing group" with the "sustaining group," with the "decreasing group" as the reference group, it was found that the lower the educational level in the personal factor, the higher the probability of being included in the "decreasing group." In terms of disability factors, the probability of being included in the "decreasing group" was high if there was a chronic disease compared to no chronic disease. In terms of psychological factors, the lower the self-efficacy and self-esteem, the higher the probability of being included in the "decreasing group." In terms of social and environmental factors, the lower the participation in social activities in daily life and the higher the experience of discrimination in daily life, the higher the probability of being included in the "decreasing group."

Conclusions and Implications: The implications of the results of this study are that service support for psychological support and expectation formation should be expanded along with opportunities for capacity building so that individuals with disabilities can recognize and accept themselves. Secondly, elderly individuals with disabilities experience premature aging, so a support system that can maintain and manage their health is needed. Finally, policy efforts such as improving social awareness are necessary to alleviate social prejudice and exclusion and encourage participation in social activities.