Visual Impairments: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits

Annex Table A2d Sample Size of Noninstitutionalized Working- Age Civilian Women (Ages 25 to 61) in the Choice-Based Sample with Various Chronic Impairments, Diseases, and Disorders, 1983-1996
	Year
Group	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	Sum
No Visual Impairments......	20,934	21,214	18,429	12,658	25,058	25,278	24,070	25,056	25,039	26,326	22,980	24,308	21,317	13,300	305,967
Visual Impairments............	91	100	85	47	99	84	94	88	97	133	100	114	88	56	1,276
Blind in Both Eyes.............	16	16	14	12	23	11	16	20	17	30	24	25	22	15	261
Other Visual Impairments.....................	75	84	71	35	76	73	78	68	80	103	76	89	66	41	1,015
Vision-Related Diseases/Disorders...........	98	66	83	45	103	82	82	93	76	121	82	70	66	50	1,117
Glaucoma...........................	31	17	23	15	39	22	27	35	30	40	23	25	31	17	375
Cataracts............................	36	22	28	16	28	27	27	23	18	47	20	11	10	6	319
Color Blindness.................	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	2
Other Vision-Related Diseases/Disorders^a.........	34	29	37	20	47	39	36	38	31	39	41	36	27	29	483
Other Impairments
Hearing Impairments.........	63	58	63	33	77	60	84	1,150	62	95	87	82	76	38	2,028
Deaf in Both Ears..............	15	6	11	7	18	4	11	36	12	22	14	14	13	10	193
Other Hearing Impairments.....................	48	52	52	26	59	56	73	1,114	50	73	73	68	63	28	1,835
Mental Retardation............	44	51	37	40	57	66	75	66	52	76	66	64	55	38	787
Paraplegia, Hemiplegia, or Quadriplegia................	12	19	16	5	16	20	14	15	20	24	7	13	13	8	202
Cerebral Palsy....................	8	12	9	5	14	13	11	17	14	15	17	20	14	7	176
Note: In the NHIS, conditions are determined in two ways. First, participants receive one of six condition lists that ask them if they have a specific condition (see Table 1). Second, participants are asked broad questions to reveal general health and functioning (see Table 2, top panel), if participants reveal they have health or functioning difficulties, they are then asked what conditions cause these difficulties (see Table 2, bottom panel). This method misses those with conditions who have no such difficulties, while his first method captures those with conditions that have no health or functioning difficulties. So only one-sixth of the sample is directly asked about blindness. This one-sixth of the sample is a random sample because being asked about blindness is not dependent one's response to another question. The remaining five-sixths of the sample is choice-based because revealing blindness is dependent one's response (choice) to another question. ^{aThe category other includes conjunctivitis, disorders of the lacrimal system, disorders of binocular eye movements, and diseases of the retina. Source: Author's calculations using the National Health Interview Survey, 1983-1996.}

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