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H. Stephen Kaye, PhD, Disability Statistics Center, Institute for Health & Aging, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Room 340, San Francisco, CA 94118, 415 502-7266, skaye@itsa.ucsf.edu
Recent data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) show that the rate of activity limitation reported by working-age adults rose significantly during each of the recession years of 2001 and 2002, just as it did during and immediately following the previous recession in the early 1990s. For both recessionary periods, the increase in overall activity limitation is dominated by a rise in self-reported inability to work. It has been suggested that, when jobs are scarce, economic motives cause people to emphasize the extent of their disability in order to acquire Social Security disability benefits. But our prior research showed that the early 1990s saw an increase not only in reported disability, but also in the reported prevalence of the chronic conditions and impairments that can cause disability. Because the latter increase affected a broad population, only a minority of whom reported inability to work, we concluded that rising disability rates were directly caused by epidemiologic factors, which in turn may have been caused at least partly by economic instability. Our current research, based on data from the 1997-2002 NHIS, extends this analysis to the expansionary period of the late 1990s and the current recession. We continue to find evidence that worsening levels of health and functioning are directly responsible for the increases in reported disability, and in particular inability to work, among working-age adults. An indirect effect of economic factors is also considered, as are factors related to health risks and the aging of the population.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Disability, Epidemiology
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.