Disability

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) provides guidelines that assure the provision of services to people with disabilities and the protection their legal rights. The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, access to public services, public accommodations, and commercial facilities, and it requires telephone companies to offer telephone relay service for individuals who use telecommunication devices for the deaf (TTYs) or similar devices¹. The ADA includes a legal definition of disability, in part defining a person with a disability as one who has “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.”²

Many groups, including government agencies, advocacy organizations, researchers, and the public at large, monitor the effectiveness of these laws, statutes, and programs. They seek to assess the equality of opportunity for people with and without disabilities in education, employment, and other forms of social participation. Since the various programs and laws focus on different groups of people, this report uses a variety of definitions of disability.³

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) contains questions about the ability to perform a number of activities. If a person reports having difficulty performing a specific activity, usually a follow-up question determines whether or not the difficulty is severe. Responses to these and related questions were used to arrive at two overall measures of disability status—nonsevere disability and severe disability—described in Figure 1. In the detailed tables and in the text, these activities are grouped to allow analysis of subsets of people with a disability.

The data in this report were collected from June through September 2002 in the fifth wave (interview) of the 2001 SIPP. The population represented (population universe) is the civilian noninstitutionalized population living in the United States.⁴ Thus, disabilities of the institutionalized population, such as those in nursing homes, are not reported.

• In 2002, 51.2 million people (18.1 percent of the population) had some level of disability and 32.5 million (11.5 percent of the population) had a severe disability (Table A).
  
  
• About 10.7 million people aged 6 and over needed personal assistance with one or more activities of daily living (ADL) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), defined in Figure 1.
  
  
• Among the population 15 and older, 2.7 million used a wheelchair. Another 9.1 million used an ambulatory aid such as a cane, crutches, or walker.
  
  
• Approximately 7.9 million people 15 and older had difficulty seeing words and letters in ordinary newspaper print, including 1.8 million people who reported being unable to see.
  
  
• An estimated 7.8 million people 15 and older had difficulty hearing a normal conversation, including approximately 1.0 million who reported being unable to hear.
  
  
• The poverty rate for people 25 to 64 with no disability was 7.7 percent; the rate was 11.2 percent for people with a nonsevere disability and 25.9 percent for people with a severe disability.
  
  

In 2002, 18.1 percent of the 282.8 million people in the civilian noninstitutionalized population reported having a disability (Table 1). Among the 51.2 million people with a disability, 32.5 million (11.5 percent of all people) had a severe disability. About 10.7 million (4.1 percent of the population aged 6 and over) needed personal assistance with one or more ADLs or IADLs.

Figure 2 shows that older people were more likely than younger people to report having a disability. The disability rate for each age group was successively higher than for the next younger group, resulting in the highest percentage of people with disabilities among people 80 and older (71.7 percent).⁵ With a disability rate of 19.4 percent, people 45 to 54 years old were more than twice as likely to have a disability as people under 15 (8.4 percent) and half as likely as people 65 to 69 years old (38.4 percent).

The relationship between age and disability holds as well for rates of severe disability and for the percentage of people needing personal assistance.⁶ About 12.6 percent of people 45 to 54 years old had a severe disability and 3.8 percent needed personal assistance. For people 65 to 69 years old, the percentages were 25.4 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.

Overall, the majority of people with disabilities were female, 28.2 million (19.5 percent of all females), while 23.0 million were male (16.7 percent of all males), as shown in Table 1. Among people with a severe disability, 18.4 million were females and 14.1 million were males, with 6.6 million females and 4.1 million males requiring personal assistance.

In the population younger than 15 years, disability was more prevalent among boys (10.5 percent) than girls (6.3 percent). Similarly, for people aged 15 to 24, women had lower rates of disability than men, 9.5 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively. Among older age groups, the reverse was true.⁷ For people 45 to 54, women had a higher prevalence of disability, 21.9 percent compared with 16.7 percent for men. Among the population 65 and older, 10.9 million women (55.9 percent) and 6.7 million men (47.4 percent) had a disability. The rate for women with a severe disability (40.5 percent) in this age group was higher than for men (31.9 percent).

Among non-Hispanic Whites, men tended to have higher disability rates than women at younger ages; at older ages, men had lower rates than women (Table 1). For all ages, the rate for the presence of a disability among Asians or Pacific Islanders was 11.5 percent, among non-Hispanic Whites was 19.0 percent, and among Blacks was 19.8 percent.⁸ Asians or Pacific Islanders had the lowest prevalence both of a severe disability, 7.2 percent, and of the need for assistance, 2.5 percent. Blacks had the highest of those rates, at 14.0 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively.⁹ The rates for Hispanics (who may be any race) were 8.8 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively.¹⁰

Among people 15 and older, 14.8 million had difficulty seeing, hearing, or speaking (Table 2). People with a communication or visual impairment were considered to have a disability if they had difficulty seeing small print in a newspaper even when wearing glasses if they normally wear them (7.9 million), hearing a normal conversation (7.8 million), or having their speech understood (2.6 million).¹¹ Among people with these conditions (14.8 million), 20.8 percent (3.1 million) had a severe disability—they were unable to see small print in a newspaper (1.8 million), hear a normal conversation (1.0 million), or have their speech understood by others (610,000).

Table 2 presents data for people who had an ambulatory disability or who had difficulty with selected physical tasks of the upper or lower body. About 25 million people 15 and older (11.4 percent) had an ambulatory disability. People with an ambulatory disability included those who reported using a wheelchair or similar device (2.7 million), using a cane, crutches, or walker (9.1 million), or having difficulty in one or both of the following capabilities: walking a quarter of a mile (20.9 million) or climbing a flight of stairs (20.5 million).

People with limitations with upper body mobility and functioning constituted 8.2 percent of the population 15 and older. These disabilities included difficulty lifting and carrying something as heavy as 10 pounds (15.4 million) and difficulty grasping objects (6.7 million).

Several other questions on selected limitations of the upper and lower body were asked in the survey but were not included in the disability definition. An estimated 21.7 million people reported having difficulty moving a large chair, 22.1 million reported difficulty standing for 1 hour or longer, 9.2 million had trouble sitting for 1 hour or longer, 25.0 million had difficulty crouching, and 10.9 million reported difficulty reaching overhead.

Several questions in the survey asked people if they had difficulty with an ADL or IADL and if personal assistance was needed to perform the activity. ADLs included difficulty getting around inside the home, getting in or out of a bed or chair, taking a bath or shower, dressing, eating, and getting to or using the toilet. IADLs included difficulty going outside the home alone, keeping track of money, preparing meals, doing light housework, taking prescription medicines appropriately, and using the telephone.

About 8.1 million people 15 and older (3.6 percent) had difficulty with one or more of the six ADLs and 4.5 million required personal assistance (Table 2). With regard to the six IADLs, 13.2 million people had difficulty with at least one and about three-fourths of this population (10.1 million) needed personal assistance. Taking into consideration people who had difficulties with one or more ADLs or IADLs, 10.6 million (4.8 percent) needed assistance. About 5.1 million (2.3 percent) required personal assistance with three or more of the activities.

People with limitations in cognitive functioning or a mental or emotional illness that interfered with their daily activities accounted for 6.4 percent of the population or 14.3 million people (Table 2). Using questions on these types of conditions, the SIPP identified:

The SIPP questions on work limitations took several forms. For each month of the 2001 panel, the survey recorded whether working-age people (in 2002, approximately 184.4 million people aged 16 to 64) had a physical, mental, or other health condition that prevented or limited the work they could do at a job or business. While 17.4 million people (or 9.4 percent) reported this condition, they were not automatically counted as people with disabilities since the answer to this question was not part of the definition of disability. Refer to the section on Related Materials and Figure 1 for further details.

The Wave 5 disability supplement of the SIPP included questions on limitations on two types of work: work at a job and working around the house. Of 16-to-64 year olds, 6.4 percent (11.8 million) reported the presence of a condition that made it difficult to remain employed or find a job. Of the population 16 and older, 8.3 percent (18.2 million) were limited in the kind or amount of housework they could do, and of those, 28.6 percent (5.2 million) were prevented from doing housework.

Disabilities were classified in one of three domains: communication, physical, or mental.¹² Responses to several questions were used to arrive at the overall measures of each domain, described in Text Box 1 on this page. Table 2 displays data on people with disabilities by age and domain. About 26.0 million people had disabilities in one domain (communication: 2.7 million; physical: 18.9 million; mental: 4.4 million); 14.2 million people had disabilities in two domains (communication and physical: 7.8 million; communication and mental: 651,000; physical and mental: 5.8 million); and 4.4 million people had disabilities in all three domains.

In 2002, 10.4 million people needed personal assistance with one or more ADLs or IADLs with 10.2 million people having at least one helper (Table 3). Of the population who needed assistance, 4.7 million had one helper, with about one-fourth relying on their children for assistance and about one-third relying on their spouse. Among those who needed assistance, 5.6 million had two helpers, and about half (2.8 million) of the people using two helpers had help only from relatives.

Most people (85.8 percent) who reported an ADL or IADL beginning less than one year prior to the interview required assistance for less than one year.¹³ Among people who had their condition for more than 5 years, one-half (51.8 percent) required assistance for less time than the duration of the condition (5 years or less).¹⁴ Overall, more people reported needing assistance for 1 to 5 years (40.7 percent) than reported needing help for less than 1 year (23.3 percent) or needing help for more than 5 years (34.1 percent).

Of all people needing assistance, most did not pay for help—10.9 percent reported making any monthly payments. Of those who did pay, 374,000 people paid less than $99 per month (3.6 percent of people needing assistance), 320,000 people paid between $100 and $249 (3.1 percent), and 445,000 people paid more than $249 (4.3 percent).¹⁵

Regardless of disability status, the most frequent living arrangement was married-couple families (Table 4). Less common alternatives were living in a male- or female-headed family or not living with any family (living alone or with non-relatives). About 67.6 percent of people aged 25 to 64 without disabilities lived in married-couple families, compared with 59.6 percent of people with a nonsevere disability and 50.1 percent of people with a severe disability, in the same age group.

People with disabilities were more likely than people without disabilities to live alone or with non-relatives: among people 25 to 64 years old, 18.9 percent without disabilities lived alone or with non-relatives, compared with 23.0 percent with a nonsevere disability and 27.8 percent with a severe disability. People 25 to 64 years old with a severe or nonsevere disability were more likely to be the householder in a male- or female-headed household (12.7 percent) than people without a disability (8.8 percent).

People who reported very good or excellent health were less likely to have a disability than people who reported fair or poor health. Among people 25 to 64 years old with no disability, 72.5 percent reported very good or excellent health, 23.8 percent reported good health, and 3.7 percent reported fair or poor health (Figure 3). For people with a nonsevere disability, 33.4 percent reported very good or excellent health and 25.4 percent reported fair or poor health. For people with a severe disability, 12.7 percent reported very good or excellent health, while 63.1 percent perceived their health to be fair or poor. Among people 65 and older, 47.7 percent without a disability reported their health to be very good or excellent, while 10.6 percent reported fair or poor health (Table 4). Among people 65 and older with a severe disability, 8.7 percent reported very good or excellent health, while about 66.6 percent reported fair or poor health.

Among 25 to 64 year olds, most people with no disability were covered by private or military health insurance (81.3 percent), higher than the rate for people with nonsevere disabilities (76.3 percent).¹⁶ People with a severe disability were more likely to be covered by government-provided insurance (45.9 percent) than were people without a disability (3.6 percent), as shown in Figure 4. Individuals covered by a government health plan had either Medicare or Medicaid. Of those with no disability, 0.7 percent had Medicare coverage and 3.1 percent had Medicaid coverage (Table 4). In comparison, 22.8 percent of people with a severe disability had Medicare and 32.9 percent had Medicaid coverage. The health insurance coverage rate from all sources was the same for people with no disability and those with a nonsevere disability. The coverage rate for people with a severe disability (81.3 percent) was lower than the rate for people with no disability (84.1 percent).

Table 4 presents data for differences in educational attainment by disability status. About 10.4 percent of people 25 to 64 with no disability did not finish high school. The rate was higher for people with a disability—14.6 percent for people with a nonsevere disability and 26.6 percent for people with a severe disability. A higher proportion of people with no disability were college graduates (43.1 percent) than people with a nonsevere (32.5 percent) or severe disability (21.9 percent). Similarly, for people 65 and older, 20.9 percent without a disability had no high school diploma, in comparison with 25.1 percent with a nonsevere disability and 38.6 percent with a severe disability.

Program participation or public assistance, in the form of cash assistance, food stamps, or public housing was less prevalent among people with no disability or a nonsevere disability than among those with a severe disability. Among people 25 to 64 years old without a disability, 6.9 percent received some form of public assistance. In comparison, 14.3 percent of people with a nonsevere disability received some form of public assistance: 9.5 percent received cash assistance, 5.0 percent received food stamps, and 3.0 percent resided in public or subsidized housing. About 52.7 percent of people with a severe disability received some form of public assistance: 46.0 percent had cash assistance, 17.2 percent had food stamps, and 10.3 percent resided in public or subsidized housing (Table 4).

People with no disability were less likely than those with disabilities to have low levels of personal income and to live in households with lower household income (Table 4). Of people aged 25 to 64 with no disability, 39.3 percent had personal income of less than $20,000 and 12.3 percent lived in households with total household income below $20,000. In comparison, among people with a nonsevere disability, 47.6 percent had personal income less than $20,000 and 18.3 percent lived in households with total household income below $20,000. Among people with a severe disability, 76.6 percent had personal income below $20,000 and 37.8 percent lived in households with total household income below $20,000. More than one-fourth (25.7 percent) of people with no disability had household incomes of $80,000 or more, in comparison with 18.1 percent of people with a nonsevere disability and 9.2 percent with a severe disability.

Of those aged 25 to 64, about 7.7 percent of people with no disability were in poverty, compared with 11.2 percent with a nonsevere disability and 25.9 percent with a severe disability.

Table 4 presents data for people aged 25 to 64 who reported a limitation on or prevention from working by prevalence of disability. Among people with no disability, 2.3 percent reported a work limitation due to a long-lasting physical or mental health condition, and 1.0 percent reported prevention from working. About one-fifth of people with a nonsevere disability reported a work limitation and 5.7 percent were prevented from working. People with a severe disability more frequently reported an inability to work than a limitation—approximately one-sixth of people with a severe disability (15.8 percent) reported being limited, but not prevented, from working. In contrast, more than half (55.0 percent) reported prevention from working. People with a limitation or prevention from working were not automatically counted as people with disabilities since the answer to this question was not part of the definition of disability. Refer to the section on Related Materials and Figure 1 for further details.

Table 5 shows that more than half (55.9 percent) of people aged 21 to 64 with any type of disability had some employment in the 12 months prior to the interview. People with a nonsevere disability were less likely than people with no disability to report any employment—82.0 percent compared with 88.2 percent; people with a severe disability were the least likely to report any employment (42.5 percent). Median earnings for people with no disability were $25,000, in comparison with $22,000 for people with a nonsevere disability and $12,800 for those with a severe disability. Among people in the labor force for the 12 months prior to the interview, 52.6 percent with no disability worked full-time, year round in comparison with 43.6 percent with a nonsevere disability and 12.8 percent with a severe disability (Figure 5). About 11.8 percent of people with no disability, 18.1 percent with a nonsevere disability, and 57.5 percent with a severe disability were unemployed year-round.

Among the 16.9 million people aged 21 to 64 with a severe disability, 7.3 million received Medicare, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or Social Security, and 9.5 million did not. By comparison, 64.5 percent of the people who were not covered by Medicare or receiving SSI or Social Security were employed, with median earnings of $15,000 and 13.9 percent of people in the 7.3 million covered by Medicare or receiving SSI or Social Security were employed with median earnings of $3,700.

The percentage employed varied among people with different disabilities and different functional limitations. For example, 55.3 percent of people who had difficulty seeing were employed; their median earnings were $15,900. About one-third of people with an ADL were employed, with median earnings of $13,100. The same proportion of people with an IADL were employed, with median earnings of $11,300, not statistically lower than the median earnings of people with an ADL. People with disabilities solely in the communications domain were more likely to be employed (91.0 percent) than people with disabilities solely in the physical domain (56.0 percent) or mental domain (61.6 percent).

Additional information on employment and earnings is available in the materials referenced below in the section on Related Materials.

Table 6 presents data for people with no disability who reported a limitation on or prevention from working and receipt of program participation. Of the 138.8 million people with no disability, 1.8 million (1.3 percent) were limited in the kind or amount of work they could perform and 1.2 million (0.9 percent) were prevented from working. People who reported fair or poor health were more likely than people reporting very good or excellent health to report having a work limitation, being prevented from working, or receiving federal assistance in the form of Medicare, SSI, or Social Security. People covered by government health insurance were more likely to be prevented from working (9.3 percent) than limited (3.3 percent). People covered by government health insurance were more likely than those with private insurance to receive federal assistance—23.7 percent compared with 2.2 percent.

The SIPP topical module asked two questions about the disability status of children under 3 years old and two questions about the disability status of children 3 to 5 years old. Among the 11.8 million children under 3 years old, 235,000 (2.0 percent) had either a developmental delay, or difficulty moving their arms or legs, or both (Table 7). Among children 3 to 5 years old, 3.6 percent had a developmental delay; were limited in the activities of walking, running, or playing; or had both conditions.

Parents were asked a longer set of questions about their children aged 6 to 14. Out of the 37.2 million children in this age group, 4.0 million (10.9 percent) had a disability and 1.4 million (3.9 percent) had a severe disability. Children in this age group were considered to have a severe disability if one or more of the following conditions were met: (1) they had mental retardation or some other developmental disability, (2) they had some other developmental condition for which they had received therapy or diagnostic services, (3) they used an ambulatory aid, (4) they had a severe limitation in the ability to see, hear, or speak, or (5) they needed personal assistance for an activity of daily living.

Communication limitations among children 6 to 14 were defined the same way as for adults. The survey found 0.5 percent of children had difficulty seeing, 0.5 percent had difficulty hearing, and 2.1 percent had difficulty speaking. Children who had difficulty walking or running made up 2.0 percent of all children in this age group.¹⁷ The proportion of children who used a wheelchair or other ambulatory aid was 0.2 percent.

Of the 8.4 percent of children who had one or more selected developmental conditions, 2.9 percent had a learning disability, 0.6 percent had mental retardation, 0.7 percent had some other developmental disability such as autism or cerebral palsy, and 2.8 percent had some other developmental condition that required therapy or diagnostic services.¹⁸

Seven percent of children aged 6 to 14 had difficulty doing regular schoolwork and 1.6 percent had difficulty getting along with others.

Figure 6 shows the percentage of people who use the computer or Internet at home, school, work, or other place by disability status. Among the population aged 15 to 64 with no disability, 60.7 percent used a computer and 50.9 percent used the Internet at home. Among people with a severe disability, 35.9 percent used a computer and 28.5 percent used the Internet at home. The proportion was smaller for the population 65 and older: of people with no disability, 28.6 percent used a computer and 21.2 percent used the Internet at home. The rates were lower for people with a severe disability, as 11.7 percent used a computer and 7.5 percent used the Internet at home.

This report updates estimates shown in Americans With Disabilities: 1997, Series P70-73; Americans with Disabilities: 1994-95, Series P70-61; and Americans with Disabilities: 1991-92, Series P70-33. The definitions differ slightly from those used in previous versions of this report. Previous reports included the following conditions as disabilities: (1) if aged 16 to 67 and had a condition that limited the kind or amount of work or prevented a person from working at a job or business; or (2) received federal benefits in the form of Medicare or Supplemental Security Income based on an inability to work. These reports can be found on the U.S. Census Bureau’s disability website. Additional tables presenting disability information from the SIPP for 2002 and other years are also available on the website. The disability questions included in the SIPP Wave 5 Topical Module can be found at the following website: http://www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/top_mod/2001/quests/wave5/topmod2001w5.html.

The population represented (the population universe) in the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is the civilian noninstitutionalized population living in the United States. The SIPP is a longitudinal survey conducted at four-month intervals. The data in this report were collected from June through September 2002 in the fifth wave (interview) of the 2001 SIPP. For the 2001 SIPP Panel, approximately 50,500 housing units were in sample for Wave 1. Of the 45,000 eligible units, 35,100 units were interviewed. In the fifth wave, about 26,800 housing units were interviewed. All household members age 15 and older were eligible to be interviewed, with proxy response permitted for household members not available at the time of interview. The institutionalized population, which is excluded from the population universe, is composed primarily of the population in correctional institutions and nursing homes (91 percent of the 4.1 million institutionalized population in Census 2000).

Statistics from surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. All comparisons presented in this report have taken sampling error into account and are significant at the 90-percent confidence level unless otherwise noted. This means the 90-percent confidence interval for the difference between the estimates being compared does not include zero. Nonsampling errors in surveys may be attributed to a variety of sources, such as how the survey was designed, how respondents interpret questions, how able and willing respondents are to provide correct answers, and how accurately the answers are coded and classified. The Census Bureau employs quality control procedures throughout the production process including the overall design of surveys, the wording of questions, review of the work of interviewers and coders, and statistical review of reports to minimize these errors. The Survey of Income and Program Participation weighting procedure uses ratio estimation, whereby sample estimates are adjusted to independent estimates of the national population by age, race, sex, and Hispanic origin. This weighting partially corrects for bias due to undercoverage, but biases may still be present when people who are missed by the survey differ from those interviewed in ways other than the age, race, sex, and Hispanic origin. How this weighting procedure affects other variables in the survey is not precisely known. All of these considerations affect comparisons across different surveys or data sources.

For further information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates including standard errors and confidence intervals, go to http://www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/sourceac/S&A-2_SIPP2001_w1tow9_20050214.pdf or contact Sam Sae-Ung of the Census Bureau's Demographic Statistical Methods Division by email: Smanchai.Sae.Ung@census.gov or at 301-763-4221.

Additional information on the SIPP can be found at the following websites:

• www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/ (main SIPP website),
• www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/workpapr/wp230.pdf (SIPP Quality Profile), and
• www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/usrguide/sipp2001.pdf (SIPP User’s Guide).

Steinmetz, Erika,
Americans with Disabilities: 2002.
Current Population Reports, P70-107,
U.S. Census Bureau,
Washington, DC. 2004.

ENDNOTES

¹ The U.S. Department of Justice maintains a website devoted to information about the ADA at http://www.ada.gov. “A Guide to Disability Rights Laws: 2002,” available at that website or at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/cguide.htm, describes the federal laws that specifically address the interests of people with disabilities.

² See Public Law 101-336, available at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/pubs/ada.txt.

³ This report is an update of a previous report P70-73: Americans with Disabilities: 1997, which contained statistical analysis about individuals with disabilities.

⁴ The estimates in this report (which may be shown in text, figures, and tables) are based on responses from a sample of the population and may differ from the actual values because of sampling variability or other factors. As a result, apparent differences between the estimates for two or more groups may not be statistically significant. All comparative statements have undergone statistical testing and are significant at the 90-percent confidence level unless otherwise noted.

⁵ The percentage of people aged 15 to 24 with a disability was not statistically different from people aged 25 to 44 with a disability.

⁶ People who required personal assistance were considered to have a severe disability.

⁷ The percentage of women aged 75 to 79 with a disability was not statistically different from that of men aged 75 to 79 with a disability.

⁸ The percentage of non-Hispanic Whites with a disability was not statistically different from the percentage of Blacks with a disability.

⁹ The percentage of Asians and Pacific Islanders who needed assistance was not statistically different from that of Hispanics who needed assistance.

¹⁰ Because Hispanics may be any race, data in this report for Hispanics overlap with data for racial groups. Data users should exercise caution when interpreting aggregate results for these groups because they consist of many distinct subgroups that differ in socio-economic characteristics, culture, and recency of immigration.

¹¹ The number of people who had difficulty seeing was not statistically different from the number who had difficulty hearing.

¹² Disabilities are categorized based on their specific nature; for example, a disability caused by arthritis is in the physical domain. About 1.5 million individuals (3.1 percent of people with any disability) reported difficulty with a general activity such as working around the house or an ADL/IADL but did not specify any specific difficulty which would allow classification by domain.

¹³ The survey asked respondents only the duration of their main condition. The 11.9 percent of people whose main condition began less than 1 year ago but who needed assistance with ADL/IADL activities for 1 year or more may have been reporting the effects of another condition.

¹⁴ About 1.9 percent of persons who had their condition for more than 5 years did not need assistance.

¹⁵ The percentage of people who paid less than $99 per month for assistance was not statistically different from the percentage of people who paid between $100 and $249 per month.

¹⁶ Health insurance status is measured for the month prior to interview. The estimates by type of coverage are not mutually exclusive; people can be covered by more than one type of health insurance.

¹⁷ The percentage of children who had difficulty speaking was not statistically different from that of children who had difficulty walking or running.

¹⁸ The percentage of children who had mental retardation was not statistically different from that of children who had some other developmental disability. The percentage of children with a learning disability was not statistically different from that of children who had some other developmental condition that required therapy or diagnostic services.