Disability Among Adults in Brazil With a Colostomy: A Cross-sectional, Descriptive Study

People with an ostomy need care appropriate to their needs and should be encouraged to adapt to their situation. In Brazil, persons with a stoma meet the legal definition of being disabled, enabling them to access comprehensive health care services.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the degree of disability experienced by persons with a colostomy.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among people with a colostomy in one Brazilian public health service. Between May 2017 and January 2018, persons at least 18 years of age who had a colostomy for at least 3 months were eligible to participate. Sociodemographic and stoma characteristic variables were collected, and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) 2.0 was used to assesses perceived levels of disability. Higher scores indicated greater degree of difficulty. All persons with a WHODAS score ⟩0 were classified as disabled. Descriptive statistics, chi-squared, and Fisher's exact tests were used for data analysis, with a significance level of 5%.

Among the 58 predominantly elderly participants (29 women, 29 men; mean age 64 ± 12 years), the overall mean WHODAS score suggested a small degree of impairment (3.1 ± 7.1). The highest scores were observed in the domains participation (6.3 ± 16.1), mobility (5.6 ± 17.3), and life activities (5.3 ± 15.6). The majority of participants (41, 70.7%) had a disability score of 0 (no disability). The proportion of persons who did or did not perceive any level of disability did not differ significantly by the stoma variables assessed.

Based on the WHODAS scores, the majority of study participants did not perceive themselves as being physically disabled. Other clinical studies should advance this discussion in order to better understand the perception and reality of disability among ostomates.