Page 344 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 2

CPS1879 Zineb El O.T.

Age-adjustment or direct standardization to
compare indicators disaggregated by disability
status
Zineb El Ouazzani Touhami
Statistician, Division of Population Census and Vital, Statistics, Directorate of Statistics
High Commission for Planning
Rabat, Moroco

Abstract
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the
recently adopted 2030 Agenda, emphasize the need to guarantee the rights
of persons with disabilities to equal and accessible education; social, economic
and political inclusion. One of the main purposes of collecting data on
disability is to assess equalization of opportunities. To track whether society is
becoming more inclusive, also to determine whether the opportunity gap
between persons with disabilities and those without disabilities is closing. To
assess whether those with and without disabilities have equal opportunities to
participate in society. But the task of comparing indicators of persons with
disabilities against those without disabilities is not easy one, if we consider the
difference of age structure of both populations disabled and not disabled. A
population with a higher proportion of elderly people will have a lower overall
crude labour force participation rate and a higher illiteracy because the risk of
being disabled is greater with increasing age. Because of the strong
connection between disability prevalence and age, and the impact of age of
onset on the impact of disability, clearly, age adjustment should be made. In
this paper we suggest the use of the direct method of standardization which
is a way to make fairer comparisons between groups with different age
distributions. Age adjustment can make the different groups more
comparable.

Keywords
disability; rate; gap; equalization; adjustment

1. Introduction
Recently the question of disability is increasingly seen as a human rights
problem, especially after the ratification of the United Nation Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Convention is a human
rights instrument, to protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all
human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and
to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
Consequently, it was felt necessary to collect information on person with
disabilities, and all United Nation disability documents have stressed the

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