Inclusion of people with disabilities in telephone health surveillance surveys.
OBJECTIVE
Telephone survey data are widely used to describe population health, but some fear that people with disabilities cannot participate. We tested the hypothesis that a telephone survey would underrepresent adults with disabilities, and that the adults with disabilities who responded would report lower prevalences of sensory, mental, self-care, and multiple limitations than those observed in people with disabilities in the general population.


METHODS
We compared characteristics of adults with disabilities identified by the 2001 Washington State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) to Washington adults with disabilities in the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS), to 2 BRFSS Disability Supplements, and to the Washington State Population Survey. All except the C2SS are telephone surveys.


RESULTS
Contrary to expectations, post hoc analyses of all telephone surveys found significantly higher prevalence of disability in the Washington adult population than did the C2SS. The hypothesis of more sensory, mental, and self-care limitation in telephone disability samples was supported in only 2 of 11 instances in which a disability sample was asked about 1 of these limitations. Findings were not explained by differences in disability definition or type of informant.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that population telephone surveys do not underrepresent adults with disabilities. The counterintuitive finding of their higher survey participation raises further questions.
Kinne
Susan
S
CDPR, 146 N Canal St No. 313, Seattle, WA 98103, USA. susaki@u.washington.edu
Topolski
Tari D
TD
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D040343:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; D015982:Bias; D019352:Censuses; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012107:Research Design; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014861:Washington / Q000453:epidemiology
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