Environmental Factors Affecting the Measurement of Disability: Plans for the National Health and Aging Trends Study

The extent to which differences in inherent capacity result in functional limitations or dependence is in part a function of the environment in which we live.

Moreover, the environmental features we observe may have been put in place or acquired to accommodate physical capacity. This presentation will discuss the role that environments within and outside the home play in the conceptualization and measurement of disability. Most national surveys have focused primarily on the assessment of individual capacity and contain limited information on the environmental factors that are themselves enabling or disabling. Thus, it has not been possible to identify groups at-risk for disability because of an environmental barrier or lack of modification to the home, to track the contributions of environmental changes to declines in late-life disability, or to assess the extent to which technology enhances the lives of older adults. The NSAH will include measures of the physical, social and technological context in which individuals live and function. We plan to investigate three areas: 1) the home and neighborhood environment, which includes an understanding of the physical features of the home and neighborhood that facilitate or hinder activities; 2) the social environment, comprised of the social networks with which individuals interact, and their geo-spatial distribution; and 3) the communications and technology environment, which includes access to and use of computers, Internet, and telephones as well as new emerging technologies.