A Profile of Adults Needing Assistance with Activities of Daily Living, 1991-1992. Disability Statistics Report 11.

This report uses data from the 1990 and 1991 samples of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to construct a profile of the U.S. noninstitutionalized adult population needing assistance with activities of daily living (ADL) and to estimate the size of the population eligible for federal personal assistance services (PAS) under different ADL, income, and age criteria. It also describes current sources of ADL assistance by recipient type. Research results indicate that an estimated 7.3 million noninstitutionalized adults are limited in their capacity to perform one or more of five basic ADLs (bathing, transferring, dressing, eating, toileting), and some 3.7 million require the assistance of another person in performing ADLs. The report concludes that: (1) roughly 1.4 to 2.2 million adults would be eligible for a federal personal assistance benefit under basic ADL criteria; (2) means-testing has a very large effect on total program eligibility counts; (3) younger adults with disabilities constitute over one-third of the adult population needing ADL assistance; (4) a significant proportion of ADL limitations appear to be short-term; (5) most people with ADL assistance needs get help from family members; and (6) ADL assistance requirements are useful in delimiting categories of need. (Contains 75 references.) (CR)