179410 Health Risks across the Lifespan among Adults with Mobility Limitations: Challenges for Public Health Practice

Monday, October 27, 2008: 8:30 AM

Gwyn C. Jones, PhD, MSW, MEd , National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
     
Objective: To investigate disparities in health risks among adults with mobility limitations across the lifespan.

Methods: We back-coded questions from the 2000-2006 National Health Interview Survey to the international Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework to investigate disparities in health risks across the lifespan for adults with lower-extremity mobility limitations (difficulties with changing and maintaining body position and difficulties with walking and moving around). In the logistic regression models we controlled for race/ethnicity, sex, income, education and marital status. Our reference group for all comparisons was adults age 65+ years without mobility limitations. Findings were statistically significant at p<.001.

Results: Among adults under age 65, obesity rose 15.5% for mobility-limited adults, compared with 6.8% for non-limited adults. A similar pattern emerged for diabetes. Smoking declined for all groups but adults under age 65 with mobility limitations were significantly more likely to smoke. The odds of having fair/poor health for adults with mobility limitations increased (age 18-24, AOR=1.78; age 25-44, AOR=2.96; age 45-64, AOR=6.89; age 65+ years, AOR=8.07.). Risk for depression declined by age group but remained higher for adults with mobility limitations (age 18-24, AOR=13.5; age 25-44, AOR=9.9; age 45-54, AOR=6.4; age 65+ years, AOR=3.4).

Conclusions: Adults with mobility limitations face substantial health risks at every age, compared with their non-limited counterparts, Public health interventions should begin early in the lifecycle and be sustained over time to minimize future disability and health decline. Longitudinal data are needed to track health risks among adults with mobility limitations as they age.

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify disparities in potentially preventable health risks among adults with and without mobility limitations at different stages in the lifecycle. 2. Recognize the importance of addressing health risks among adults of all ages with mobility limitations at each stage of the lifecycle. 3. Increase knowledge in the utility and application of the ICF framework for disability research.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I conducted the research on which this abstract is based.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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