Disability
Reading these charts
When reading the charts in this publication:- solid bars have significant differences in time to at least one other group
- hatched bars have no significant difference to any other group
- missing bars mean that this value has been suppressed due to small numbers of responses for that breakdown
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1 Introduction
This section discusses how disabled respondents spent their time in 2020 compared to non-disabled respondents. Respondents were categorised as ‘disabled’ if they:
- answered ‘yes’ to the question: do you have any physical or mental health conditions or illnesses lasting or expected to last 12 months or more?
- and if they answered ‘yes, a little’ or ‘yes, a lot’ to the follow up question: does your condition or illness/do any of your conditions or illnesses reduce your ability to carry-out day-to-day activities? (Note that the respondent must answer ‘yes’ to both questions in order to be classified as disabled)
There were 236 diary days for disabled respondents and 864 diary days for non-disabled respondents.
When interpreting the below findings it’s important to note that disabled people tend to be older and, as a result, age may also play a role in a disabled person’s likelihood to do or not do an activity.
2 Activity type
2.1 Disabled respondents spent more time on free time activities than non-disabled respondents
Figure 1: Bar chart showing average time spent on the different activity types by disability, Scotland, 2020
Almost all respondents spent time on free time activities. Disabled respondents spent more time on free time activities than non-disabled respondents (an average 6 hours and 55 minutes per day compared to 5 hours and 14 minutes per day respectively).
Non-disabled respondents spent more time on paid work than disabled respondents (an average of 2 hours and 49 minutes per day compared to 1 hour and 20 minutes per day respectively).
41% of non-disabled respondents spent time on paid work, compared to 23% of disabled respondents.
There were no other differences between disabled and non-disabled respondents across the activity categories.
3 Paid work
3.1 Disabled respondents spent less time on paid work both from home and away from home compared to non-disabled respondents
Figure 2: Bar chart showing average time spent on paid work by disability, Scotland, 2020
As demonstrated in figure 1, disabled respondents spent less time on paid work overall than non-disabled respondents.
Disabled respondents spent less time on paid work away from home when compared to non-disabled respondents, an average of 49 minutes per day compared to 1 hour and 37 minutes respectively. This pattern was the same for paid work from home, with disabled respondents spending 31 minutes on this activity compared to 1 hour and 12 minutes for non-disabled respondents.
4 Unpaid work
4.1 Disabled respondents spent more time on housework/cooking than non-disabled respondents
Figure 3: Bar chart showing average time spent on unpaid work by disability, Scotland, 2020
Non-disabled respondents spent more time than disabled respondents on developmental childcare (an average of 17 minutes per day versus 7 minutes per day respectively). Non-disabled respondents also spent more time on travel than disabled respondents (36 minutes versus 26 minutes respectively).
Disabled respondents spent more time than non-disabled respondents on housework/cooking, with an average of 1 hour and 58 minutes spent on this activity per day versus 1 hour and 36 minutes respectively.
5 Personal care
5.1 Non-disabled people spent more time on personal fitness than disabled people
Figure 4: Bar chart showing the average time spent on personal care by disability, Scotland, 2020
In the category of personal care, the only difference between disabled and non-disabled respondents was in personal fitness. Non-disabled respondents spent an average of 15 minutes per day on this activity whereas disabled respondents spent an average of 8 minutes per day on personal fitness.
6 Free time
6.1 Disabled respondents spent more time on other leisure activities than non-disabled respondents
Figure 5: Bar chart showing the average amount of time spent on free time by disability, Scotland, 2020
Disabled respondents spent more time on other leisure activities than non-disabled respondents, an average of 5 hours and 30 minutes per day versus 3 hours and 56 minutes per day respectively. Other leisure activities include leisure activities which do not have as much of a social element, such as watching TV or browsing the internet.
7 Did activity type
The differences between disabled and non-disabled respondents for free time, paid work, unpaid work, and personal care when looking at only those respondents who did the activity were broadly the same as when looking at the whole sample (see figure 1).
8 Did paid work
Looking at only the proportion of the sample who did paid work on a given day, there were no differences between disabled and non-disabled respondents.
9 Did unpaid work
The differences between disabled and non-disabled respondents for unpaid work when looking at only those respondents who did the activity were broadly the same as when looking at the whole sample (see figure 3). However, there was no longer a difference between disabled and non-disabled people on time spent on travel.