Financial hardship experienced by people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carli Friedman
PMID 35835660WHAT IT FOUND
During the Delta and Omicron waves, 52% of adults with disabilities struggled to pay household expenses, compared to 24% of nondisabled adults.
They relied less on regular income and more on credit, savings, and social assistance. This disparity persisted even after accounting for job loss and demographics.
Key findings
0152.0% of people with disabilities had difficulty paying usual household expenses, compared to 23.7% of nondisabled people.
02After adjusting for demographics including job loss, people with disabilities were 2.78 times more likely to have difficulty paying household expenses.
03People with disabilities were less likely to use regular income sources and more likely to use credit cards, loans, and social assistance programs than nondisabled people.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The disability questions used by the Census Bureau may not capture all types of disabilities, potentially excluding some individuals. It is unclear how accessible the survey was to people with disabilities, which may have affected who responded. The study is a secondary analysis, so researchers could not add variables or ask follow-up questions to clarify the nature of the financial hardship or the specific impact on health. Household income was not included as a control variable in the regression because it was strongly correlated with the outcome, meaning the analysis does not isolate the effect of disability from low household income directly.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the 2.78 times higher likelihood of financial hardship as solely caused by the disability itself. The analysis controlled for job loss and demographics, but the study does not establish a causal mechanism. Additionally, do not assume these findings apply to all disability types, as the survey's specific questions may not capture all disabilities.