Social status of the disabled: the problem of loneliness

Russia's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities serves as a starting point of the research presented in this article. According to the Convention principles, the authors define disabled persons not as recipients of relevant pensions only, but as persons experiencing serious limitations in their daily and social life. The article addresses the problem of loneliness, revealing vulnerability of the social position of the disabled. On the basis of the Census data and the outcomes of a sample survey of the disabled the authors show a high prevalence of their living alone and lack of social ties. These and other factors of their feeling lonely are estimated by logistic regression model. The authors come to a conclusion that loneliness affects respondents' assessment of their own health, thereby increasing the risk of experiencing difficulties in daily activities.