Population Health Research Brief Series

Abstract

Disabled people are a population with health disparities, so accurate data on disability status is required to fully understand and mitigate these disparities. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is the primary survey used to monitor the health of the U.S. population. Currently, the NHIS uses the Washington Group Short Set on Functioning (WGSS) questions to create a disability indicator that can be used to estimate the size of the disabled population and ascertain the severity of a person’s level of functional limitations. This study used data on U.S. adults ages 18+ from the 2010-2018 NHIS to determine how accurately the WGSS questions capture the severity of functional limitations related to vision and hearing. The authors find that the WGSS questions inaccurately categorize 35.7% of blind adults and 43.7% of deaf adults. They call on the federal government to stop using the WGSS questions in their surveys.