Introduction:

According to official sources, disability affects up to 12 % of a country’s population. In Colombia, however, this percentage will continue to increase in the coming years regardless of the existing under-recording. Additionally, Pension fund administrators (PFAs) are in charge of efficiently managing the pension risk fund in Colombia.

Objective:

To characterize disability pension applications due to common diseases along with the main factors regarding their approval between 2006 and 2011 in a Colombian PFA.

Materials and Methods:

The PFA’s Unique Manual for Disability Assessment was used as a secondary source of information. This was a descriptive study with an inferential exploration of the factors concerning two outcomes: disability and application approval.

Results:

Being declared as a disabled person was associated with being male, having the highest schooling level, and the impairment motivating the application: diseases that have low prevalence but are very disabling. Having social support decreased the probability of being declared disabled.

Discussion and conclusion:

The factors related to disability, which are consistent with those reported by other studies, should be considered when proposing public policies, which may have an impact on the prevention of this outcome and the well-being of the working population.

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