Functional disabilities of disabled workers in vocational aid facilities and a social welfare factory

We evaluated functional disabilities of disabled workers at vocational aid facilities and a social welfare factory to reveal whether evaluation of the functional disabilities is useful for occupational health care activities. Subjects were 121 persons with a physical disability working at Fukuoka Colony (FC workers) and 35 persons with mental retardation working at Nanomi Kogei (NK workers). The Self-Rating Barthel Index, Self-Rating Frenchay Activities Index, and Satisfaction in Daily Life (SDL) were used for the evaluation of basic activities of daily living (ADL), lifestyle, and subjective domain of quality of life, respectively. The FC workers were almost independent in basic ADL: had a high capability in self-care activities and moderately disturbed capability in mobility activities, and had a more active lifestyle than the NK workers. The total SDL score indicated that the FC workers were less satisfied with overall daily life, although not significant, and were less satisfied with the SDL items of physical health, gait, house facilities, and having a job than the NK workers. Because these results indicated the features of disabled workers and gave an occupational health physician valuable information about disabilities, the evaluations used in this study can be regarded as useful for occupational health care activities.