A Pilot Survey to Measure Disability in the Elderly Population

描述（由申请人提供）：对技术（例如，助行器等辅助技术和微波炉和自动银行机等广泛使用的技术）、家庭改造（例如，安装坡道、栏杆、步入式淋浴间等）的作用了解甚少。和行为因素（例如，只有在有同伴陪伴的情况下才能在外面走动），以解释最近在全国老年人纵向调查中观察到的残疾人数下降。我们建议使用四种不同的残疾措施对社区居住的老年人进行试点调查，以了解使用技术和家庭及行为修改是否会影响自我报告的残疾。我们建议用于衡量残疾的调查方法包括现有的调查问题，即在有帮助和没有帮助的情况下进行日常生活活动（ADL）和工具性日常生活活动（IADL）的困难，锚定插图，这是调查研究中的一种新技术，可以让我们了解调查受访者是否有不同的倾向，根据他们使用的技术和修改报告残疾，客观的身体评估。本研究的目标是：1）比较四种方法，以确定它们是否提供了不同的老年人口残疾估计，2）检查技术和修改的使用在多大程度上可以解释不同方法之间残疾估计的差异，（3）利用试点研究的结果设计一项全国性调查或对现有调查的补充，以收集有效的残疾情况简要衡量标准。这项研究对于研究人员和政策制定者来说至关重要，他们希望了解为什么残疾正在发生变化，以及这些变化对寿命和医疗支出的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Little is understood about the role of technologies (e.g. assistive technologies such as mobility aids and technologies that are widely available such as microwaves and automated banking machines), home modifications (e.g. installation of ramps, rails, walk-in showers, etc.) and behavioral factors (e.g. only walking around outside with a companion to hold onto) in explaining recent declines in disability observed in national longitudinal surveys of elderly. We propose to conduct a pilot survey of community-dwelling elderly using four different measures of disability to understand whether use of technologies and home and behavioral modifications affects self-reported disability. The survey methods we propose to use to measure disability include existing survey questions about difficulty conducting Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (lADLs) with and without help, anchoring vignettes, a novel technique in survey research that will allow us to understand whether survey respondents have different propensities to report disability based on their use of technologies and modifications, and objective physical assessments. The goals of the study are to 1) compare the four methods to ascertain whether they provide different estimates of disability in the elderly population, 2) examine the extent to which use of technologies and modifications may explain differences in disability estimates between the different methods, and 3) use the results of the pilot study to design a national survey or adjuncts to an existing survey to collect valid summary measures of disability. This research is critical for researchers, and for policy-makers who seek to understand why disability is changing and what implications those changes will have for longevity and medical spending.