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Maslow's hierarchy of people with disability: Are they different from people
without a disability?

Conference Paper · October 2019

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 Med Jad 49 (2019) Supplement 2

Maslow's hierarchy of people with disability: Are they different from

people without a disability?

Marija Ljubičić*1,2,3, Ivona Burčul4, Sonja Šare1,5, Ivana Gusar1,6, Marijana Matek Sarić1

1 University of Zadar, Department of Health studies, Croatia

2 Department of Pediatrics, Zadar General Hospital, Croatia
3 School of Medicine, University of Split, Croatia
4 Centre of Rehabilitation Sv. Filip i Jakov, Croatia
5 Medical High School Ante Kuzmanića, Croatia
6 Faculty of Medicine, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia

*marija.ljubicic.zadar@gmail.com +385 98 177 18 04

Introduction: Equity in health cannot be achieved without satisfying the needs of persons with
disabilities following Maslow's hierarchy. Despite that, people with a disability are put into special categories
such as handicapped, disabled or a “person/child with special needs”. However, a lot of effort has been put in
from the profession to replace these stigmatised terms with milder and more acceptable ones.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of nurses on human needs
and to check if their disability terminology was in accordance with their level of education.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study (N=160) we used an original questionnaire “HNPD” (α=0.84).
The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to analyse the differences between the knowledge and attitudes of the nurses
and the terminology and basic human needs. The Spearman rank correlation was used for associations between
variables.
Results: The nurses showed good knowledge about human needs of people with disabilities
(Me=121.0; Iq=15.5). Nurses with a higher level of education showed a higher level of knowledge about
terminology (p=0.002). There was no correlation between the educational level and their knowledge of the
physiological, safety and affiliative human needs (p=0.130), but there is a correlation with self-actualization
(p<0.001).
Conclusion: A positive nursing attitude of valid terminology and a good knowledge about Maslow's
hierarchy confirm the importance of continuous education in nursing. This may have an impact on the quality
of health care for people with a disability with positive outcomes on global health.
Key words: people with disability, human needs, terminology, nursing, education

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