Prevalence of Chronic Health Conditions Among People With Disabilities in the United States

Abstract

Objective: Report chronic health conditions are common among adults with disabilities to inform prevention and management efforts in public health.

Design and setting: This article reports on secondary analysis of 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey.

Participants: Cases with a disability within the BRFSS 2022 dataset were identified by selecting any case that answered "yes" to any of the ACS-6. The BRFSS only includes non-institutionalized individuals 18 years or older.

Main outcome measures: Statistics reported include weighted unadjusted prevalence of any chronic health condition among adults with a disability by type of disability and other selected demographic characteristics, weighted unadjusted prevalence estimates for individuals with chronic health conditions by age group and disability type, and prevalence ratios across groups.

Results: Review of the proportions between disability types within demographic strata revealed those with self-care and those with independent living disabilities consistently had the highest, and those with hearing and those with vision-related disabilities had the lowest prevalence of any chronic health condition. Across all age and disability groups, arthritis and depression were among the most common chronic health conditions. Prevalence differences among racial groups in younger age groups were not present among the 65+ age group.

Conclusion: These prevalence estimates can inform health education and chronic health management efforts to support targeted prevention and intervention programs.

Keywords: Accessibility; Adults; Chronic health conditions; Disabilities; Disease prevention; Rehabilitation.