The Korea National Disability Registration System

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Social Welfare Policy

Background:

• Established in 1989, the Korea National Disability Registration System (KNDRS) facilitates social welfare benefits.
• Registration involves medical examinations and advisory meetings to assess disability severity.
• The system legally defines 15 disability types, with extremity impairments being the most prevalent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the structure and utility of the Korea National Disability Registration System (KNDRS).
• To highlight the KNDRS as a valuable data resource for disability research.
• To underscore the importance of integrated health data for understanding disability prevalence.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Korea National Disability Registration System (KNDRS).
• Integrated KNDRS data with the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD).
• Described the legal framework and operational procedures of the KNDRS.

Main Results:

• As of 2021, 5.1% of the Korean population (2.645 million people) were registered as disabled.
• Disabilities of the extremities constitute the largest category, at 45.1%.
• The KNDRS-NHIRD linkage provides comprehensive data on disability types and severity.

Conclusions:

• The KNDRS is a robust system for managing disability registration and benefits.
• Combined KNDRS and NHIRD data offer significant potential for epidemiological studies on disability in Korea.
• The system's structure supports objective medical assessment and expanded disability definitions.