CDC: Americans face more limits on daily activities

By Allison Bell

November 28, 2012 at 07:51 AM

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U.S. residents are telling survey teams that they suffer from more restrictions on activities of daily living (ADLs).

Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have published ADL limit figures in a summary of results from the 2011 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

Long-term care insurance (LTCI) companies often use information about limits on ADLs, such as walking and dressing, to decide whether the people they insure are eligible for LTCI benefits.

The NHIS interview sample excludes people who are already in nursing homes or other long-term care (LTC) institutions.

But, even within the NHIS survey sample — which included data on 101,875 people in 40,496 U.S. families in 2011 — the percentage of people ages 18 and older who are reporting having limits on ADLs has been increasing.

The average percentage of adults who reported facing at least one ADL limit increased 0.2 percentage points — and 10 percent — between 2007 and 2011, to 2.2%.

The percentage of people reporting ADL limits increased in every age group, and for people in every annual income category but the $100,000-and-over category.

In the 45-64 age category, for example, 1.9 percent of the participants said they had at least one ADL limit, up 0.2 percentage points from 1.7 percent in 2007.

In the category for people with family incomes of $75,000 to $99,999 per year, the percentage who said they faced at least one ADL limit increased 0.3 percentage points — and 23% — to 1.6 percent.

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