BACKGROUND: Adverse health outcomes among those living with disabilities impact the lives of many Americans. Data on health status of people living with disabilities is critical for public health officials to better tailor and allocate resources to improve the quality of lives of persons living with disabilities. To better assess the type of functional limitation or condition associated with the disability among Kansans, KS BRFSS added five additional questions to the survey for the first time in 2013 and subsequently in 2014. This study will examine the status of disability and types of functional disability by selected socio-demographics characteristics and assess health outcomes by disability status among Kansans.
METHODS: Data from the 2014 Kansas BRFSS were analyzed to assess prevalence of disability and types of functional disability (vision, cognition, mobility, self-care and independent living) among Kansas adults aged 18 years and older in various population subgroups. Further, adjusted logistic regression analyses (multiple models) to examine the odds of selected health indicators among people with at least one functional disability compared to people without functional disability adjusting for age, gender, race, ethnicity, and education were conducted. Prevalence estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Weighted analysis procedures were applied using SAS 9.3 software.
RESULTS: An estimated 486,345 (22.3%) adults have at least one functional disability. Higher prevalence of at least one functional disability was seen among females, adults aged 45 years and older, African American, non-Hispanic adults, those with lower income, lower education and those who were unable to work. About 4.0% adults had serious difficulty seeing (vision); 10.0% adults had serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions (cognitive); 14.0% had serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs (mobility); 3.0% had difficulty dressing or bathing (self-care); and 6.5% adults had difficulty doing errands alone (independent living). Adjusted odds ratios indicated that frequent mental distress, self-perceived poor or fair general health, heart-attack, stroke, asthma, arthritis, obesity, current cigarette smoking, cost as a barrier to care, poor oral health care are associated with functional disability.
CONCLUSIONS: Adverse health outcomes among those living with disabilities are prevalent in Kansas. Disparities among those living with disability are also seen with respect to various socio-demographic sub groups. Frequent mental distress, obesity, other chronic diseases and risk factors are higher among those living with functional disability. These population based information indicated the need of public health strategies to address issues related to disability and types of functional disability among Kansas adults.