Visual Impairments: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits

TABLE A- 4 Mean Household Size-Adjusted Income (HHSAI) of Noninstitutionalized Working-Age Civilians (Ages 25 to 61) with Various Chronic Impairments, Diseases, and Disorders, Pooled Over 1983 Through 1996, by Sample and Gender

	Random Sample^a						Choice-Based Sample^a
	Men			Women			Men			Women
Group	Mean HHSAI	Relative HHSAI^b		Mean HHSAI	Relative HHSAI^b		Mean HHSAI	Relative HHSAI^b		Mean HHSAI	Relative HHSAI^b
No visual impairments...................................	31,067	1.22	^***	28,578	1.37	^***	31,110	1.70	^***	28,696	1.47	^***
Visual impairments........................................	29,361	1.15	^*	22,821	1.10		21,631	1.18	^***	20,624	1.05
-Blind in both eyes.....................................	25,503	1.00		20,837	1.00		18,348	1.00		19,567	1.00
-Other visual impairments..........................	29,504	1.16	^*	22,975	1.10		22,363	1.22	^***	20,901	1.07
Vision-related diseases/disorders................	31,655	1.24	^***	26,516	1.27	^***	26,627	1.45	^***	25,149	1.29	^***
-Glaucoma...................................................	28,978	1.14		26,246	1.26	^**	25,385	1.38	^***	22,019	1.13
-Cataracts.....................................................	26,859	1.05		24,072	1.16		23,310	1.27	^***	22,786	1.16	^*
-Color blindness..........................................	32,991	1.29	^***	27,692	1.33	^**	33,194	1.81	^***	NA	NA
-Other vision-related diseases/disorders^b.	33,155	1.30	^***	29,422	1.41	^***	28,277	1.54	^***	28,185	1.44	^***
Other impairments
-Hearing impairments..................................	30,954	1.21	^**	25,641	1.23	^**	29,434	1.60	^***	24,966	1.28	^***
--Deaf in both ears...................................	28,702	1.13		23,088	1.11		26,098	1.42	^***	19,888	1.02
--Other hearing impairments...................	31,070	1.22	^***	25,758	1.24	^**	29,690	1.62	^***	25,534	1.30	^***
-Mental retardation.....................................	17,382	0.68	^***	18,049	0.87		16,147	0.88	^***	16,927	0.87	^**
-Paraplegia, hemiplegia, or quadriplegia...	20,067	0.79	^*	23,304	1.12		20,245	1.10		20,362	1.04
-Cerebral palsy............................................	23,614	0.93		17,677	0.85		18,438	1.00		19,147	0.98
Note: Asterisks signify when the difference between blind in both eyes and another group is statistically significant at the 99 percent (*), 95 percent (), and 90 percent (*) levels. NA refers to groups for which sample size is insufficient. ^{a 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 the first method captures those with conditions who 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 on one's response to another question. The remaining five-sixths of the sample is choice-based, because revealing blindness is dependent on one's response (choice) to another question. ^{cThe category other includes conjunctivitis, disorders of the lacrimal system, disorders of binocular eye movements, and diseases of the retina. ^{b The relative HHSAI is the mean HHSAI of a given group divided by mean HHSAI of those who are blind in both eyes.}}} Source: Author's calculations using the National Health Interview Survey, 1983-1996.

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