The Social Security Administration's Disability Survey: Recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences' Committee

• Activity Number: 247
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Health Policy Statistics*
• Author(s): Dorothy Rice*+ and William Frey*+ and Allan Sampson*+ and Jennifer Madans*+ and Susan Grad*+
• Affiliation(s): University of California, San Francisco and Westat, Inc. and University of Pittsburgh and National Center for Health Statistics and Social Security Administration
• Keywords: Disability ; Statistics ; Policy ; Survey methods

Abstract

The Social Security Administration has undertaken a new data collection effort designed to measure persons with work disabilities in the United States. The survey, entitled the National Survey of Health and Activities, is a complex design, incorporating telephone and personal interviews, as well as medical examinations and a simulation of SSA's disability assessment process. As part of the undertaking, the SSA commissioned the Institute of Medicine and the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences to provide an independent review of the method, study design, and procedures. The committee has concluded its work with the publication of its final report, "The Dynamics of Disability: Measuring and Monitoring Disability for Social Security Programs." This session will present the findings from that panel and include a discussion from those directly involved in the data collection effort, as well as other disability researchers, discussing the ramifications of the SSA study for the measurement of persons with disabilities via the survey process in the Federal statistical system.