20% of Us Have A Disability - Are We Worried Yet????

February 26, 2001

Friday February 23 1:21 PM ET

One in Five U.S. Adults Report Disability

By Emma Patten-Hitt

ATLANTA (Reuters Health) - Disability appears to be an important public

health problem in the US, even among working adults. An estimated one in

five US adults said they had a disability in 1999, according to the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC).

According to the analysis of more than 53,000 adults aged 18 years or older,

22% (equivalent to 44 million of the US adult population) reported having a

disability. Of the adults who reported the main health condition causing

their disability, 18% had arthritis and rheumatism, 17% had back or spine

problems, and 8% had heart trouble/hardening of the arteries.

Disabilities included problems with climbing a flight of stairs, walking

three city blocks, lifting or carrying a 10 pound item, or difficulty

completing household tasks. Other survey subjects reported the use of a

cane, crutch, walker or wheelchair.

``This is a large public health problem--it's not just the older population

that is affected,'' said Dr. M. Hootman, of the CDC's National

Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. ``There's a

significant part of the working age population that is affected as well,''

she told Reuters Health. The survey, published in this week's issue of CDC's

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, indicates that 63% of all

disabilities occurred among working adults.

``Disability is more common than we thought it would be in the working age

population,'' Hootman said. ``We think as people age they are going to have

some type of limitation, but the survey shows a large percentage of

(disability) was among people of working age.''

Women were more likely to report arthritis or rheumatism compared with men,

and women had a total rate of disability of 24% compared with 20% among men.

Men were more likely to report problems with their heart or arteries and

deafness or hearing problems than women, according to the survey.

It's not clear if disabilities are increasing, decreasing or holding steady,

Hootman said. Two earlier studies showed that 49 million people reported

disabilities in 1991/1992 and 54 million reported disabilities in 1994/1995.

But Hootman points out that these studies defined disability differently

than the 1999 survey and also included 15- to 17-year olds.

``So we don't know the trend yet,'' she said.SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality

Weekly Report 2001;50:120-125.

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