Important Facts for Disability Prevalence
Definition
Percentage of persons who responded yes to any of the following questions:[[br]] 1. Are you blind or do you have serious difficulty seeing, even when wearing glasses?[[br]] 2. Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, do you have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?[[br]] 3. Do you have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs?[[br]] 4. Do you have difficulty dressing or bathing?[[br]] 5. Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, do you have any difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor's office or shopping?[[br]] 6. Are you deaf or do you have serious difficulty hearing?Numerator
Includes survey respondents ages 18 and older who reported they had experienced any of the six disability types. Excludes those with missing, don't know, and refused answers.Denominator
Includes survey respondents ages 18 and older. Excludes those with missing, don't know, or refused answers.Data Interpretation Issues
Because age affects the likelihood of having many types of disability, it is beneficial to adjust for the effect of age when comparing populations. This helps determine if certain populations have factors that contribute to disability prevalence other than the effect of age. Beginning in 2011, BRFSS data included both landline and cell phone respondent data along with a new weighting methodology called iterative proportional fitting, or raking. This methodology utilizes additional demographic information (such as education, race, and marital status) in the weighting procedure. Both of these methodology changes were implemented to account for an increased number of U.S. households without landline phones and an under-representation of certain demographic groups that were not well-represented in the sample. More details about these changes can be found at: [https://ibis.health.utah.gov/pdf/opha/resource/brfss/RakingImpact2011.pdf].Why Is This Important?
About 56.7 million people in the U.S. have a disability.^1^ Disabilities cut across the boundaries of age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status. "Although 'people with disabilities' sometimes refers to a single population, this is actually a diverse group of people with a wide range of needs. Two people with the same type of disability can be affected in very different ways. Some disabilities may be hidden or not easy to see."^2^ Until recently, it has been difficult to recognize the differences and barriers to health that people with disabilities experience due to lack of including this category in public health surveys. Data now shows that people with disabilities are more likely to experience significant differences in their health behaviors and health than those without a disability. Costly health events and chronic conditions such as, stroke, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, are all more common for those with disabilities, and basic preventive services such as cancer screenings and dental checks are less common. While some differences in the health outcomes of people with disabilities compared to those without disabilities may be due to the nature of the disability itself, many of these differences are avoidable and societal based.^3^ As stated by Healthy People 2020, "To be healthy, all individuals with or without disabilities must have opportunities to take part in meaningful daily activities that add to their growth, development, fulfillment, and community contribution." This will require all public health programs, organizations, and communities to find ways to include people with disabilities in program activities and healthy communities. A gap in the availability and accessibility of evidence-based programs led to the development of the [https://www.nchpad.org/fppics/NCHPAD_GRAIDs_Flyer_final.pdf Guidelines, Recommendations, Adaptations, Including Disability framework] (GRAIDs) by the National Centers on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD). The GRAIDs are an evidence-based method to adapt programs to be more inclusive of individuals with disabilities. The GRAIDs framework is applicable across programs, settings, sectors, and organizations. Applying the five GRAIDs domains will ensure accessibility and inclusion for individuals with disabilities in communities, programs, services, and organizations.[[br]] [[br]] ---- 1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. "Disability Impacts All of Us." [https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p0730-US-disability.html].[[br]] 2. Krahn G.H., Walker D.K., Correa-De-Araujo R. Persons with disabilities as an unrecognized health disparity population. AJPH. 2015;105:S198?S206. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4355692/].[[br]] 3. Utah Department of Health. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Salt Lake City: Utah Department of Health, Center for Health Data.Healthy People Objective DH-2.1:
Increase the number of State and the District of Columbia health departments that have at least one health promotion program aimed at improving the health and well-being of people with disabilitiesU.S. Target: 18 States and the District of Columbia