The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #34821

Manoj Sharma, PhD, School of HPER, University of Nebraska at Omaha & Walden University, 6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68182-0216, 402-554-3245, msharma@mail.unomaha.edu and Sunil Deepak, MD, Projects, Associazione Italiana Amici di Raoul Follereau (AIFO), Via Borselli, 4-6, Bologna, 40135, Italy.

World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended community-based rehabilitation (CBR) as the chosen strategy for persons with disability (PWD) in developing countries. Volunteers are the lynch pin in community-based rehabilitation. Few studies have been done to profile CBR volunteers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to gather data on expectations, roles, attitudes, and behaviors of CBR volunteers. Projects in eight developing countries were chosen that had CBR activities for a minimum of three years. These were Eritrea, Egypt, India, Mongolia, Papua and New Guinea, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Cluster sampling was used. A panel of three international experts in two rounds validated a sixty-item questionnaire. Reliability estimates were also found to be acceptable. The questionnaire was pilot tested, designed to be administered by program managers, and was translated in eight local languages. A total of 176 volunteers completed the questionnaires. Mean age of volunteers was 35 years (range 16-68), 53 percent were women, and had volunteered for a mean of 41 months (range 1-540). The mean outcome expectations score on the volunteering scale was 118 units (observed range 41-197 units) or midway on a possible range of 0-240. The finding underscores that besides the volunteering spirit, economic and other reasons are also important for volunteers to function. Mean self-efficacy scores on ten important volunteer tasks was found to be 24 units (observed range 0-39 units) on a possible range of 0-40 emphasizing the need for educational capacity building of volunteers. The study discusses programmatic, funding, and policy implications.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this presentation the participants will be able to

• Describe the process of instrument development and data collection for survey research in community-based rehabilitation work.
• Describe the distribution patterns of behavioral-theory-based attitudinal antecedents for volunteering among volunteers in community-based rehabilitation work.
• Elaborate programmatic, policy, and funding implications toward capacity building of CBR volunteers.
• Replicate similar descriptive studies in their settings.

Keywords: Community-Based Public Health, Disability

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.