A Guide to Disability Statistics from the National Health Interview Survey

The purpose of this paper is to examine the information on the population with disabilities in a nationally representative survey conducted by the National Center on Health Statistics called the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The paper provides a description of the disability information available in the NHIS and how the data may be used to assess the employment, economic well being and health of the population. Descriptive statistics from the 2002 NHIS public use files are used to illustrate the type of analysis that will be useful to researchers and policymakers

The Effects of Survey Nonresponse and Proxy Response on Measures of Employment for Persons with Disabilities

Abstract If many people do not respond to surveys, and those who do not respond are different from those who do, then survey estimates may be biased. This study examines potential bias in employment statistics for persons with disabilities arising from differences in the survey response patterns between persons with and without disabilities. Several types of response rate are considered: contact, cooperation, and self-response (vice proxy response). Also, several types of disability are considered: mobility, mental, seeing, hearing, and MR/DD/LD. The data are from the National Health Interview Surveys of 1994 and 1995, including the National Health Interview Survey on Disability, Phase 1 and Phase 2. Based on the evidence of this study, there is little reason to believe that household survey-based employment statistics for persons with disability are significantly biased by nonresponse or proxy response of respondents with disabilities

The ICIDH-2: Developments for a new era of outcomes research

ABSTRACT. Gray DB, Hendershot GE. The ICIDH-2: developments for a new era of outcomes research. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2000;81 Suppl 2:S10-S14. This article reviews the important concepts that led to the development of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH), explicates the International Classification of Functioning and Disability (ICIDH-2), and discusses implications of the ICIDH-2 as a conceptual framework for outcome measures. The original ICIDH opened the door to include factors outside the traditional classification boundaries of disease, illness, and functional limitations that have framed the concept of disability. The new factors in the ICIDH-2 include a dimension for participation in social activities and a listing of environmental factors that are important for understanding the complexity of disability. The ICIDH-2 offers an opportunity for building a consensus on the terms used to describe disability and on the scope of factors to include in studying disability

A Statistical Note on the Religiosity of Persons with Disabilities

Indicators of the religiosity of persons with and without disability are compared using statistics from the National Survey of Family Growth, which represents community-dwelling persons of reproductive age in the U.S. It is found that persons with disabilities are less likely than persons without disabilities to attend religious services and less likely to report that religion is important in their daily lives

The Effects of Survey Nonresponse and Proxy Response on Measures of Employment for Persons with Disabilities

If many people do not respond to surveys, and those who do not respond are different from those who do, then survey estimates may be biased. This study examines potential bias in employment statistics for persons with disabilities arising from differences in survey response patterns between persons with and without disabilities. Several types of response rate are considered: contact, cooperation, and self-response (versus proxy response). Also, several types of disability are considered: mobility, mental, seeing, hearing, and MR/DD/LD. Data are from the National Health Interview Surveys of 1994 and 1995, including the National Health Interview Survey on Disability, Phases1 and 2. Based on evidence of this study, there is little reason to believe that household survey-based employment statistics for persons with disabilities are significantly biased by nonresponse or proxy response of respondents with disabilities

Editors' Introduction

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