Research PaperThe risk of developing a work disability across the adulthood years
Section snippets
Data set
This study is based on longitudinal analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a nationally representative data set. The statistical methodology is the life table. An extended discussion of the PSID and life table methods can be found under Ancillary Material.
The life table method eliminates omission bias confounding Meyer and Mok's12 longitudinal analysis of work disability using the PSID. These authors identify end of study age groups within the PSID, and then retrospectively
Life course probabilities of developing a work disability
The first column (1 or more years) in Table 1 represents the proportion of household heads who at some point during their prime working age years will develop a work disability. For reasons of space we only include the cumulative proportions at five year intervals, although our analysis contains these proportions for each year between 25 and 60. In addition, although life table results are generally reported as proportions (as they are in Table 1, Table 2), for our discussion of the results we
Discussion
This study has provided a first time look at the overall likelihood of American heads of household developing a work disability at some point between the ages of 25 and 60. Our results indicate that over half (54.6%) of household heads will report some type of a work disability during these years, while nearly one quarter (24.1%) will report having a severe work disability. This is in sharp contrast with the cross-sectional U.S. Census Bureau annual rates of 12.7% of the population 16 to 64
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Work disability in the United States, 1968–2015: Prevalence, duration, recovery, and trends
2018, SSM - Population HealthCitation Excerpt :African American and Hispanic women reported less moderate and severe work disability than whites. Studying individuals’ risks of a first occurrence of either any work disability or severe work disability, Rank and Hirschl (2014) found that nonwhites were less likely to report any work disability than whites, with no significant difference for severe work disability. That the latter finding differs from our result may be due to their focus on household heads, which limited the representation of women, or to differences in methods.
Identifying adults aging with disability using existing data: The case of the Health and Retirement Study
2017, Disability and Health JournalCitation Excerpt :Diagnosis of at least one chronic illness in adulthood used as a measure of physical health in adulthood. Work limitation is a lesser studied disability construct9; but an important one to understand as it relates to life course experiences of living with disability. To assess the impact of disability in adulthood on work, HRS asks, “Do you have any impairment or health problem that limits the kind or amount of paid work you can do?”
The influence of geographic variation in socio-cultural factors on length of work disability
2017, Disability and Health JournalEvents Across the Life Course Contribute to Higher Mobility Impairment Rates in Rural U.S.
2022, Frontiers in Rehabilitation SciencesCUMULATIVE DISADVANTAGE IN EMPLOYMENT: Disability over the Life Course and Wealth Inequality in Later Life
2021, The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of DisabilityA Pipeline of Unscrupulous Practices: Qualitative Study of Attitudes Toward the Social Security Disability Program
2020, Journal of Disability Policy Studies
Sources of financial support: Funding for the analysis in this study was provided by a Ford Foundation Grant administered through the Center for Social Development, Washington University, as well as funding from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, University of Michigan. The authors have no conflicts of interest.