Prevalence of Selected Chronic
Conditions: United States, 1990-92
This report presents an update of the
prevalence of selected chronic conditions in the United States. The purpose of the report
is to provide prevalence data by age, sex and age, by race and age, by family income, and
by geographic region for major chronic conditions systems. The report also presents the
percent of selected conditions that cause activity limitations, the percent for which a
physician was consulted, and the percent that cause hospitalization. Conditions with the
highest prevalence and those causing the most disability days are also analyzed.
Information for this report is based on
data collected during the National Health Interview Survey for the years 1990, 1991, and
1992.
Data Highlights:
Deformities or
orthopedic impairments was the most frequent chronic condition reported with almost 35
million conditions. Other conditions high in prevalence were chronic sinusitis, arthritis,
and high blood pressure with annual averages of 33.7, 31.8, and 27.6 million conditions,
respectively. Mental retardation and multiple sclerosis caused the highest percents of
activity limitation among persons afflicted, 87.5 percent and 69.4 percent respectively.
Deformities and other orthopedic
impairments, arthritis, and heart disease caused the highest numbers of restricted
activity days and bed disability days per year; whereas, malignant neoplasms of the lung,
bronchus, and other respiratory sites caused the highest number of restricted activity
days per year, per condition reported, 96.1 days.
In little more than a decade, the
prevalence rate from asthma had increased almost 50 percent and the rate from chronic
bronchitis had increased 46 percent.