An evaluation of the American Community Survey indicators of disability.
Barbara M Altman, Jennifer Madans, Julie D Weeks
PMID 28385572WHAT IT FOUND
The six ACS disability questions identified 13.1% of adults 18 to 64 as having a disability.
They also captured 73.1% of people reporting SSI/SSDI benefits, leaving 26.9% of that benefit group missed.
Key findings
01Approximately 13.1% of adults aged 18 to 64 were identified as having a disability by the ACS question set, and 5.3% indicated receipt of SSI/SSDI benefits.
02Approximately 73.1% of those receiving SSI/SSDI were also identified by the ACS questions, leaving 26.9% of that benefit group not identified.
03People identified by the ACS questions were almost three times as likely as people reporting only SSI/SSDI benefits to have multiple functioning difficulties (45.0% compared to 16.8%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The analysis used 2011 survey data and only adults aged 18 to 64, so it does not describe older adults or people outside that age range. It excluded people in long-term care institutions, correctional facilities, and U.S. nationals living in foreign countries. Disability and benefit receipt were based on survey answers, with self-report or proxy report, not clinical assessment or benefit records. The paper notes that benefit eligibility is a variable process, considers more than functional limitation, and differs by state, so survey-reported benefit receipt may not define the same population as clinical disability. Too few people in the SSI/SSDI-only group were at the fifth level of movement severity, so that level could not be compared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the ACS disability questions identify every person receiving SSI/SSDI benefits. They captured 73.1% of that group, and 26.9% of people reporting SSI/SSDI benefits were not identified by the ACS questions.