Effect of Community Based Rehabilitation Program Implementation on Disabled People Living Conditions in Iran

Community based rehabilitation is a strategy to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. This study was to determine the effect of community based rehabilitation program implementation on disabled people’s living conditions in Iran. This research is a quasi-experimental study executed in 2011. Sampling method was multi-stage. In the first stage, 30% of the provinces were chosen through the random sampling method. In the next stage, 50 cities were selected from the 100 cities implementing the community based rehabilitation program in 10 provinces. Then in each city, 30 disabled people were randomly selected and for the 1503 disabled people Tizun Zhao questionnaire was completed. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and wilcoxon test. The mean age (SD) of participants was 3014.2 years. Most of the participants were single and male. More people (%36.6) had psychomotor disability. Leading cause of disability was congenital defects. After the rehabilitation program implementation, the rating of enhanced the daily living abilities, motor abilities, social communication, job abilities, quality of life, source of income, employment status, participation rate in social life and training status significantly improved. There was a significant relationship in all areas between the CBR and the enhancement of the capabilities of the disabled (P0.001). Implementation of community based rehabilitation has had a positive effect on improving disabled people’s living status.