The Washington Group Short Set of Functioning as a Global Disability Data Collection Tool: A Discussion on Its...

Disability is a global public health issue. To tackle the issue, internationally comparable disability data collection tools are needed. Against the backdrop of the global demand, the Washington Group Short Set on Functioning (WG-SS) has been developed and adapted globally. It is reasonable, from a global perspective, to use the internationally standardized tool to capture the current situation across the world. However, use of the tool may not necessarily be reasonable from a local perspective. In Japan, traditionally, persons with a legal disability certificate or an intractable disease are recognized as persons with disabilities. Previous studies based on secondary analyses of a national representative data set from Japan, however, suggested that a significant portion of them were not captured by the WG-SS; the percentages of persons being captured by the WG-SS among persons with a legal disability certificate and intractable disease were approximately 45% and 40%, respectively. Disability statistics based on the WG-SS may not fully reflect the whole picture of individuals with a legal disability certificate and intractable diseases in Japan. Therefore, utilization of the disability data for policy- making on Japanese local disability issues would need to be done with careful considerations over the limitations. These kinds of considerations may also be needed among not only Japanese stakeholders but also those in other countries where similar potential disparities exist between the WG-SS and the local disability index. A better understanding of the comparability between the WG-SS and the local disability index is essential for effective utilization of the WG-SS from a local perspective.