Original articlesIs stroke the most common cause of disability?
Section snippets
Disability survey 1996
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) Disability Survey was on the basis of a follow-up survey of disabled respondents from the 1996/1997 Family Resources Survey. Those who matched at least one of a series of criteria on the basis of age, benefit receipt, or reported health problems were asked to take part in a further interview, which was concerned with more detailed questions on health symptoms and difficulties performing everyday activities. It consisted of all the questions needed to
Results
Of the 8863 participants, 7168 answered the questions relating to disability, a total of 5704 reporting some level of disability. Table 1 shows the age distribution of disability and diseases. Disability increases with age and is very common, affecting the majority of participants at all ages. Table 2 shows the mean disability severity score for a range of conditions and the results of a regression analysis describing the relationship between disability and each chronic condition adjusting
Discussion
It is clear that the way the association between disability and chronic illness is considered will alter the conclusions drawn. For example, when we consider the proportion of those with severe disability who report each of the chronic conditions and the PAF, musculoskeletal disorders appear to be the most important. Stroke, by contrast, although being strongly associated with severe disability, is relatively uncommon compared with musculoskeletal disorders, and consequently has one of the
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Stroke Association UK. The views presented here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Stroke Association UK.
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