Events Across the Life Course Contribute to Higher Mobility Impairment Rates in Rural U.S.

Purpose: This paper investigates how life events such as injuries, health insurance coverage, geography, and occupation contribute to mobility disability rates over time. Findings can inform policies and practices to address factors that may contribute to disability in rural and urban areas.

Methods: We utilized 27 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data from 1979 to 2016 to explore how past injury, occupation, health insurance coverage, and rurality predicted mobility impairment at ages 40 and 50 using regression analysis.

Effects of an exercise intervention on participation reported by people with disabilities: A mixed methods randomized trial.

Background: Despite a long history of research on the benefits of exercise for people with mobility impairments, little is known about how exercise affects participation in their daily activities.

Objective: This randomized mixed-methods study examined the effects of participating in a structured community-based exercise program on pain, depression, fatigue, exertion and participation in daily activities.

Method: Study participants were recruited from a population-based sample of people who returned a survey (n = 800) and indicated they would be willing to participate in another study.

Effects of a consumer driven home modification intervention on community participation for people with mobility disabilities.

Background: Community participation has become a key outcome measure for people with disabilities. This has resulted in a shift in researchers focus from the individual to the environment. However, research has focused primarily on participation barriers in the community with limited research examining the role of the home environment.

Is the presence of home entrance steps associated with community participation of people with mobility impairments?

Background: Little is known about how home entrances are related to community participation for people with mobility impairments.

Objective: This investigation explored how the need to navigate steps at the entrance of a home affects the community participation levels of people with mobility impairments.

Methods: This survey study used pre-measure data collected from three different samples.

Health status changes with transitory disability over time.

Rationale: The six-question disability set from the American Community Survey serves as the national standard for measuring disability across all surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Transitory and Enduring Disability Among Urban and Rural People.

Background: Disabilities are not evenly distributed across geography or age, yet few studies on disability have considered these factors. The purpose of this study was to explore rural-urban differences in disability rates, particularly related to gender and race, and what other rural-urban disparities help explain these differences.

Methods: Utilizing the 2008-2016 Current Population Survey (CPS), we first examined rural and urban disability trends by gender and race, estimating means and rural-urban percentage differences for men and women by race and conducting t test analysis to test group differences by age cohort (eg, comparing white, non-Hispanic, rural 15- to 24-year-old women to white, non-Hispanic, urban 15- to 24-year-old women).

Life Starts at Home: Bathing, Exertion and Participation for People With Mobility Impairment.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between perceived exertion while bathing/dressing/grooming and associations with social-recreational activities outside the home for individuals with mobility impairment (MI).

Design: A 2-study approach was used to examine data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and primary data from the Health and Home Survey (HHS). The relationship between bathing/dressing/grooming and engagement in social-recreational activities was explored, as well as the role that exertion in the bathroom may play in participation in these activities.

Disability Items From the Current Population Survey (2008-2015) and Permanent Versus Temporary Disability Status.

Objectives: To examine longitudinal responses to the disability indicator questions that have been adopted as the standard across national surveys sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Methods: Data from the Current Population Survey between 2008 and 2015 were linked to create a longitudinal sample of 721 178 individual respondents.

Results: Responses to the disability questions fluctuated significantly.

Why stay home? Temporal association of pain, fatigue and depression with being at home.

Background: Community participation is important to most people with disabilities despite the fact that common secondary conditions like pain, fatigue and depression may increase the difficulty of leaving home. Despite decades of research on these secondary conditions, little is known about how they are associated with being at home.

Objective: We used Ecological Momentary Assessment data to examine within subject fluctuation in these secondary conditions to examine their effect on the likelihood that participants remain at or return home.