Introduction: It is estimated that around 20% of total disabled population is locomotor disabled, out of which 57% are from rural areas. These disabilities affect their quality of life. Rehabilitation measures extended to these affected population aims at improving their quality of life and economic independence. These interventions provided at the community level rather than to individual persons, have a better outcome. Expanding Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) is the need of hour. In India, there are very few studies on CBR and Quality of Life (QOL) of locomotor disability. Our study was intended as a pilot study for CBR. This study aims to find out the effect of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) on the quality of life of people with locomotor disabilities in Vadakkupalayam village of Cuddalore district in Tamilnadu as it can give us a sample picture for implementation of future CBR programmes.

Aim: 1. To find out the prevalence of locomotor disability in Vadakkupalayam village of Cuddalore district. 2. To find out the effectiveness of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) on the Quality of Life (QOL) of people with locomotor disabilities in the area.

Materials and Methods: This study was conducted as Quasi Experimental Study. Secondary data was collected and survey with questionnarie was done to identify people with locomotor disabilities (52) after which rehab interventions were given. WHODAS 2.0 scale was used before and after rehab intervention and t-test was used for statistical analysis and the data was obtained.

Results: As mean WHODAS decreases, the quality of life of person with locomotor disability increases. Comparison of pre- and post- intervention WHODAS showed that there was a statistically significant difference observed t=15.084, p<0.001. It can be inferred that CBR has improved the quality of life of person affected with locomotor disability among the selected participants in this study.

Conclusion: Our study shows that Community based Rehabilitation has improved the quality of life of person affected with locomotor disability among the study population .Awareness to the public through information  booklets and mobile therapy vans will enable the  people, especially in rural areas,  to benefit from the rehabilitative measures provided by the government and non-governmental organisations.

Keywords: Locomotor disability, Community based rehabilitation, Quality of life.

1. Census 2011-census of in2011 http://censusindia.gov.in/
2. Disabled persons in a statistical profile 2016 (http://mospi. nic.in/sites/ default/files/publication_reports/Disabled persons in India 2016.pdf)
3. A concise textbook of CBR:satya bhusan Nagar
4. WHO CBR MATRIX-https://www. who.int/disabilities/cbr/guidelines/en/
5. Development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment. The WHOQOL Group. Psychol Med. 1998 May; 28(3):551-8.
6. LEPROSY MISSION TRUST OF INDIA-https://www.leprosymission.in/
7. 0 https://www.who.int/classifications/icf/whodasii/en/
8. Prevalence of disabling conditions in a rural northern Thai community: a survey conducted by village health communicators. Swaddiwudhipong W1, Amaritchavarn V, Boonyabuncha S. Disabil Rehabil. 1993 Apr-Jun; 15(2):83-9.
9. Sustainability: lessons from a community-based rehabilitation programme in Karnataka, India Fairlene Soji, Jay Kumar and Sara Varughese  Knowledge Management for Development Journal
10. Sandip Dhole, Anil Kumar N. More, Harshanand J Popalwar, Vaibhav Lokhande Study of Locomotor Disability Due To Various Types Of Trauma Gaur NjmrVolume 5Issue
11. J Psychosocial Problems, Quality of Life, and Functional Independence Among Indian Stroke Survivors Rinu Susan Raju, MA, MPhil; Prabhakaran S. Sarma, PhD; Jeyaraj D. Pandian, MD, DM
12. JAASEP WINTER, 2013 Nature and Causes of Locomotor Disabilities in India Santoshi Halder, M.A., Ph.D. Fulbright Nehru Senior Research Fellow (2011-2012) School of Education, Indiana University Assistant Professor, Department Of Education, University of Calcutta, Alipore Campus, Arindam Talukdar, M.Pharm, Ph.D. Senior Research Scientist, Pharmacy, Albany Molecular, Singapore July – Sept 2015.
13. Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development, Vol 24, No 4 (2013) Impact of Community-based Rehabilitation on Persons with Different Disabilities. Sunil Deepak, Mario Biggeri, Vincenzo Mauro, Jayanth Kumar, Giampiero Griffo.

Balamurugan R

Department  of  Physical  Medicine  and  Rehabilitation, Rajah  Muthiah  Medical  College and  Hospital,  Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamilnadu