Description/Abstract
Disabled people are a population with health disparities, so accurate data on disability status is required to fully understand and mitigate these disparities. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is the primary survey used to monitor the health of the U.S. population. Currently, the NHIS uses the Washington Group Short Set on Functioning (WGSS) questions to create a disability indicator that can be used to estimate the size of the disabled population and ascertain the severity of a person’s level of functional limitations. This study used data on U.S. adults ages 18+ from the 2010-2018 NHIS to determine how accurately the WGSS questions capture the severity of functional limitations related to vision and hearing. The authors find that the WGSS questions inaccurately categorize 35.7% of blind adults and 43.7% of deaf adults. They call on the federal government to stop using the WGSS questions in their surveys.
Document Type
Research Brief
Keywords
Disability, Disability Status, National Health Interview Survey
Disciplines
Disability Studies | Family, Life Course, and Society | Sociology
Date
10-29-2024
Language
English
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Alyssa Kirk and Shannon Monnat for edits of this brief.
Recommended Citation
Landes, Scott D., Swenor, Bonnielin K., and Hall, Jean P. (2024). Brief title. Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series. Research Brief #121. Accessed at: doi.org/10.14305/rt.lerner.2024.1
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
