Application of a comprehensive disability measure: Disability prevalence among US Veterans and non-veterans from the National Health Interview Survey Data from 2015 to 2018.
Prev Med
; 185: 108051, 2024 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38906274
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Current measures of condition-specific disabilities or those capturing only severe limitations may underestimate disability prevalence, including among Veterans.OBJECTIVES:
To develop a comprehensive measure to characterize and compare disabilities among US Veterans and non-Veterans.METHODS:
Using 2015-2018 pooled cross-sectional National Health Interview Survey data, we compared the frequency and survey-weighted prevalence of non-mutually exclusive sensory, social, and physical disabilities by Veteran status. We developed a measure for and examined the frequency and survey-weighted prevalence of eight mutually exclusive disability categories-sensory only; physical only; social only; sensory and physical; social and sensory; physical and social; and sensory, social, and physical.RESULTS:
Among 118,818 NHIS respondents, 11,943 were Veterans. Veterans had a greater prevalence than non-Veterans of non-mutually exclusive physical [52.01% vs. 34.68% (p < 0.001)], sensory [44.47% vs. 21.79% (p < 0.001)], and social [17.20% vs. 11.61% (p < 0.001)] disabilities (after survey-weighting). The most frequently reported mutually exclusive disability categories for both Veterans and non-Veterans were sensory and physical (19.20% and 8.02%, p < 0.001) and physical only (16.24% and 15.69%, p = 0.216) (after survey-weighting). The least frequently reported mutually exclusive disability categories for both Veterans and non-Veterans were social only (0.31% and 0.44%, p = 0.136) and sensory and social (0.32% and 0.20%, respectively, 0.026) (after survey-weighting).CONCLUSIONS:
Our disability metric demonstrates that Veterans have a higher disability prevalence than non-Veterans, and a higher prevalence than previously reported. Public policy and future research should consider this broader definition of disability to more fully account for the variable needs of people with disabilities.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Veteranos
/
Inquéritos Epidemiológicos
/
Pessoas com Deficiência
/
Avaliação da Deficiência
Limite:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Prev Med
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos