A Pilot Survey to Measure Disability in the Elderly Population

描述(申请人提供)：对技术的作用(例如，辅助技术，如移动辅助设备，以及广泛可用的技术，如微波炉和自动银行机)、房屋改造(如安装坡道、栏杆、步入式淋浴等)，了解甚少。以及行为因素(例如，只有在户外走动时才能抱着同伴)来解释在全国老年人纵向调查中观察到的最近残疾下降的原因。我们建议对社区居住的老年人进行一项试点调查，使用四种不同的残疾衡量标准，以了解使用技术以及家庭和行为改变是否影响自我报告的残疾。我们建议用来衡量残疾的调查方法包括现有的关于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(LADL)的调查问题，锚定小片段，这是一种调查研究中的新技术，使我们能够了解调查受访者是否有不同的倾向来报告基于他们使用的技术和修改的残疾，以及客观的身体评估。这项研究的目标是：1)比较四种方法，以确定它们是否提供了对老年人口残疾的不同估计；2)检查技术和改进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现有调查的附属调查，以收集有效的残疾综合衡量标准。这项研究对研究人员和政策制定者至关重要，他们试图了解残疾为什么会发生变化，以及这些变化会对寿命和医疗支出产生什么影响。

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.