title: The risk of developing a work disability across the adulthood years.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Work disability has implications for individual health, national health care expenditures, economic productivity, and the social safety net. Knowledge about population dynamics and risk factors associated with work disability are not delineated by cross-sectional research.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this paper the authors estimate, for the first time, the prospective lifetime risk that a head of household will report a work disability.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using forty years of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we estimate the lifetime risk of developing a work disability and conduct a logistic regression analysis to examine personal characteristics that increase the likelihood of a self-reported work disability. Life table methods are used to calculate lifetime prevalence, and to compute covariate effects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between the ages of 25 and 60, over half (54.6%) of U.S. household heads will self-report a work disability, and approximately one quarter (24.1%) will self-report a severe work disability. Persons with income below 150% of the federal poverty level, or lower educational attainment, have an increased likelihood of reporting a work disability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study finds that more than half of U.S. household heads will self-report a work disability, which is a higher prevalence than in existing cross-sectional estimates. The social context for this finding is that work disability is a major driver of spending on health care services and the social safety net.
authors.affiliation: Social Welfare, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Institute of Public Health, Campus Box 1196, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Rank
authors.affiliation: Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Electronic address: tah4@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Hirschl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015993:Life Tables; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Labor force; Life table analysis; Social Security disability; The life course; Work disability