A Comparison of Disability Prevalence Estimates Across Three Federal Population-Based Surveys

• Activity Number: 645
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 13, 2015 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Courtney-Long Elizabeth A.* and Dianna D. Carroll and Stevens Alissa and Qing (Cathy) Zhang and Vincent Campbell
• Companies: CDC and CDC and CDC and CDC and CDC
• Keywords: Disability ; national surveys ; prevalence difference

Abstract

Department of Health and Human Services guidance for implementing Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act established six questions to determine disability status in national population health surveys. The questions are now used in several surveys and this study expands what is known about differences in inter-survey disability estimates. Using 2013 data from the American Community Survey (ACS), Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), we estimated disability prevalence among adults using the six questions (five for BRFSS). Disability prevalence was 23.2% (BRFSS), 16.9% (NHIS) and 15.1% (ACS). In all surveys, the prevalence of ambulatory difficulty (14.1%, 9.6% and 8.5%) was higher than difficulty with hearing, vision, cognition, self-care, or community independence. A higher prevalence of disability was seen among women and those ?65 years in all surveys. By race/ethnicity, the highest disability prevalence was among white/non-Hispanic adults in NHIS, and black/non-Hispanic adults in BRFSS and ACS. Differences in survey mode, population and methodology may contribute to observed differences in disability prevalence.