Disabilities

Publications

Alphabetical list. You can also view by publication date.

• Disability Burdens among Older Americans Associated with Gender and Race/Ethnicity in Rural and Urban Areas
  Author(s): James N. Laditka, Sarah B. Laditka, Bankole Olatosi, Keith T. Elder
  Research center: South Carolina Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Disabilities, Minority health, Women
  Date: 09 / 2005
  No prior research has investigated differences in disability-free and disabled life expectancy associated with rural or urban residence. This report addresses this gap, and identifies differences in healthy life expectancy that may signal important policy needs. The authors examined total life expectancy, disability-free life expectancy, and disabled life expectancy, comparing people in rural and urban areas. These expectancy measures for subgroups of rural and urban areas were compared, distinguished by sex, race (white and African American) and educational attainment. The authors found that among a cohort of Americans aged 65 to 69 in 1982, in seven of the eight subgroups, individuals in rural areas lived longer lives than those in urban areas. Rural as compared to urban people lived (a) more disability-free years, (b) more disabled years, and (c) a notably greater percentage of their lives with a disability. There were striking differences among the high and low education groups, with individuals with more education living substantially longer, less disabled lives. Women lived longer, more disabled lives than men. For most subgroups, African Americans lived shorter, more disabled lives than whites. Executive summary available online.
• Disability Burdens among Older Americans in Rural and Urban Area
  Research center: South Carolina Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Aging, Disabilities
  Date: 2005
  Examines differences in disability-free and disabled life expectancy among rural or urban residents, using an indicator called "health expectancy."
• Effect of Rural Residence On Dental Unmet Need for Children With Special Health Care Needs
  Author(s): Asheley Cockrell Skinner, Rebecca T. Slifkin, Michelle L. Mayer
  Research center: North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Topics: Children, Dental health, Disabilities
  Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 22(1), 36-42
  Date: 2006
  Unmet need for dental care is the most prevalent unmet health care need among children with special health care needs (CSHCN), even though these children are at a greater risk for dental problems. The combination of rural residence and special health care needs may leave rural CSHCN particularly vulnerable to high levels of unmet dental needs. Rural CSHCN are more likely to forgo needed dental care than their urban counterparts. Results suggest that rural CSHCN have unmet needs for dental care due to both difficulty accessing care and because their parents do not recognize a need.
• Effects of Rural Residence and Other Social Vulnerabilities on Subjective Measures of Unmet Need
  Author(s): Michelle L. Mayer, Rebecca T. Slifkin, Asheley Cockrell Skinner
  Research center: North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Topics: Children, Disabilities, Health services, Poverty
  Citation: Medical Care Research and Review, 62(5), 617-628
  Date: 2005
  To determine whether self-reports of unmet need are biased measures of access to health care, the authors examined the relationship between rural residence and perceived need for physician services. Logistic regression analyses was performed to examine the likelihood of reporting a need for routine preventive care and/or specialty care using data from the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. Even after controlling for factors known to be associated with evaluated need, parents of rural children were less likely to report a need for routine or specialty services. Poor children, those whose mothers had less education, and those who were uninsured in the previous year were also less likely to perceive a need for physician services. Findings suggest that rural residence and other social vulnerabilities are associated with decreased perception of need, which may bias subjective measurements of unmet need for these populations.
• Rural/Urban Differences in Barriers to and Burden of Care for Children With Special Health Care Needs
  Author(s): Asheley Cockrell Skinner, Rebecca T. Slifkin
  Research center: North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Topics: Children, Disabilities
  Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 23(2), 150-157
  Date: 2007
  Examines the barriers and difficulties experienced by rural families of children with special health care needs in caring for their children. Covers rural-urban differences in types of providers used, reasons for unmet health care needs, insurance and financial difficulties encountered, and the family burden of providing the child's medical care.