Socioeconomic Inequalities in Social Protection Among People with Disabilities in Ecuador: A Cross-Sectional Study

In 2007, Ecuador ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Dis-abilities and introduced a national social program to improve access and quality of life for people with disabilities. This study assessed disability prevalence and socioeconomic in-equalities in three social protection outcomes: household visits, benefits received during visits, and official disability accreditation. A cross-sectional study analyzed data from the 2014 national population-based survey showed a 3.84% disability prevalence. Overall, 37% of respondents reported at least one household visit among them, 77% received a benefit and 60% had official accreditation. Marked socioeconomic disparities were observed. Vis-its were less frequent among individuals without formal education (AD: –28.93; 95% CI: –35.66, –22.19) and those in the poorest households (AD: –16.40; 95% CI: –21.34, –11.46). Participants with primary education were less likely to receive benefits (AD: –14.23; 95% CI: –27.44, –1.02), while Afro-Ecuadorian (AD: 24.15; 95% CI: 7.93, 40.38) and Indigenous in-dividuals (AD: 23.13; 95% CI: 10.30, 35.95) were more likely to receive them. Conversely, those with primary (AD: 12.51; 95% CI: 5.94, 19.07) and secondary education (AD: 10.34; 95% CI: 3.48, 17.21) were more often accredited than those with higher education. Although the program reached many individuals, access remained unequal.