Measuring disability among U.S. adolescents and young adults: A survey measurement experiment.

Objective: Disability is identified in surveys using various question sets, with little understanding of reliability across these measures, nor how these estimates may vary across age groups, including adolescents and young adults (AYA). The purpose of this study was to assess AYA prevalence of disability using two disability question sets and reliability of these measures.
Methods: AYA participants in the Policy and Communication Evaluation (PACE) Vermont Study completed a single-item disability question used in the National Survey on Health and Disability (NSHD) and Urban Institute's Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS) and a six-item set on functioning (Washington Group-Short Set, WG-SS) from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) in 2021. Prevalence was estimated for any disability and each disability domain in adolescents (ages 12-17) and young adults (ages 18-25) and compared with U.S. national estimates in NHIS and NSDUH.
Results: Using the WG-SS, the prevalence of any disability was 17.0 % in PACE Vermont adolescents and 22.0 % in young adults, consistent with the national prevalence of adolescents in NSDUH (17.9 %) but higher than estimates of young adults in NHIS (3.9 %) and NSDUH (12.9 %). The single-item question provided lower estimates of disability (adolescents: 6.9 %; young adults: 18.5 %) than the WG-SS, with low positive agreement between measures.
Discussion: The prevalence of disability in AYAs varies depending on measures used. To improve disability surveillance, it may be necessary to validate new disability questions, including among AYAs, to capture a broader range of disability domains.
Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R21DA051943. Effort of the authors was also provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers U54DA036114 (JAS, JCW) and by grant #90IFRE0050 from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) within the Administration on Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or HHS. The NIH had no role in study design, data collection or analysis, or preparation and submission of the manuscript.
(© 2024 The Author(s).)