Objective: To compare key-person method with census method on the prevalence of physically disabled students and to obtain the prevalence of the physically disabled students in rural community.

Method: Total 4,890 students of 20 schools in Kyungaido province were surveyed in 1997. Two-thousands and twenty-two students of 8 schools were surveyed by a census method and 2,868 students of 12 schools by a key-person method.

Results: The prevalence of the physically disabled students in rural community was 0.53% of the population. The prevalence of the physically disabled students was 0.69% by a census method and 0.42% by a key-person method. This result suggests that there is no significant difference in the prevalence of physically disabled students between the two survey methods (p＞0.05).

Conclusion: A key-person method is as effective as a census method for prevalence survey of physically disabled students in rural communities because of cost effectiveness and less personnel.

Objective: To compare the efficiency of a key-person method with the census method on the prevalence of physically disabled.

Method: The residents of K-myeon, A-kyun, Kyungido were surveyed in May 1996 with a census method and of D-myeon in August 1997 with a key-person method. The enlisted people in this survey included 2563 persons in D-myeon and 2138 persons in K-myeon on Identification Number.

Results: The prevalences of the physically disabled were 2.61% of the population in D-myeon and 5.00% in K-myeon (chi-square test: P＜0.500). When the physically disabled were divided into two groups (the severely disabled, group A and the mildly disabled, group B), the prevalences of group A was 1.91% in D-myeon and 2.15% in K-myeon (chi-square test: P＞0.500). This result suggests that there is no meaningful difference in the prevalence of severely disabled between the two survey methods.

Conclusion: The key-person method is as effective as the census method to survey the prevalence of severely disabled in rural communities and requires a less cost and man power.

The purpose of this study were to obtain the prevalence of the physically disabled order as a basic data for the planning of Community-Based Rehabilitation in a rural community and to evaluate the seventy of the physically disabled by according to the physical disability grade.

The total residents in the community were surveyed to in May 1996. The prevalence of the physically disabled was 6.92% of the total population. The male: female ratio was 1:0.7. The most freguent age for the on set of physical disability was sixties and this group represented 35.5% of all physical disabilities. The majority of the physically disabled was graded an 10 th, 11 th, 12 th grade.

The prevalence of the physically disabled in this study was higher than that a the previous study due to the inclurion of more mild disability groups were important in the prevalence of the physically disabled.