e16 © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com Professor Eric Emerson, Honorary Professor Dr Allison Milner, Associate Professor Dr Zoe Aitken, Research Fellow Ms Lauren Krnjacki, PhD student Dr Cathy Vaughan, Senior Lecturer Professor Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Professor of Family and Disability Studies Professor Anne Kavanagh, Professor of Disability and Health Journal of Public Health | Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. e16–e23 | doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdz093 | Advance Access Publication September 26, 2019 Overt acts of perceived discrimination reported by British working-age adults with and without disability Eric Emerson 1,2, , Allison Milner 3 , Zoe Aitken 3 , Lauren Krnjacki 3 , Cathy Vaughan 3 , Gwynnyth Llewellyn 1 , Anne Kavanagh 3 1 Centre for Disability Research and Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 1825, Australia 2 Centre for Disability Research, Faculty of Health & Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK 3 Melbourne School Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia Address correspondence to Eric Emerson, E-mail: eric.emerson@lancaster.ac.uk. ABSTRACT Background Exposure to discrimination can have a negative impact on health. There is little robust evidence on the prevalence of exposure of people with disabilities to discrimination, the sources and nature of discrimination they face, and the personal and contextual factors associated with increased risk of exposure. Methods Secondary analysis of de-identifed cross-sectional data from the three waves of the UK’s ‘Life Opportunities Survey’. Results In the UK (i) adults with disabilities were over three times more likely than their peers to be exposed to discrimination, (ii) the two most common sources of discrimination were strangers in the street and health staff and (iii) discrimination was more likely to be reported by participants who were younger, more highly educated, who were unemployed or economically inactive, who reported fnancial stress or material hardship and who had impairments associated with hearing, memory/speaking, dexterity, behavioural/mental health, intellectual/learning diffculties and breathing. Conclusions Discrimination faced by people with disabilities is an under-recognised public health problem that is likely to contribute to disability-based health inequities. Public health policy, research and practice needs to concentrate efforts on developing programs that reduce discrimination experienced by people with disabilities. Keywords adults, disabilities, social determinants Introduction That people with disabilities experience discrimination has underpinned the development of disability discrimination legislation and disability-focused social policies in many coun- tries, 1 , 2 and the development of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 3 Discrimination repre- sents a violation of the right of people with disabilities to participate in society on equal terms with others and growing evidence indicates that exposure to acts of perceived discrim- ination may be detrimental to physical and mental health. 4–9 However, there is little robust evidence on the prevalence of exposure to specific forms of discrimination, the sources of such discrimination, and the personal/contextual factors that predict which people with disabilities are likely to experi- ence discrimination. We are aware of only seven population- based studies that have investigated discrimination among people with disabilities. Estimates of the prevalence of exposure to disability discrimination in the past year among adults with disabilities have included 9–14% of Australian adults 10 , 11 ; 15–25% of disabled adults in England and Scotland 12 , 13 and 34% of English adults with an intellectual disability. 14 , 15 In addition, it has been estimated that 19% of Peruvian adults with disabilities had been exposed to disability discrimination in their lifetime. 16 Higher rates of discrimination have been reported among people living Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/43/1/e16/5574381 by guest on 23 June 2022