Visual Impairments: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits

TABLE A-9 Mean Household Size-Adjusted Income of Noninstitutionalized Working-Age Civilians (Ages 25 to 61) in the Choice-Based Sample with Various Chronic Impairments, Diseases, and Disorders, Pooled Over 1983-1987 and 1992-1996 and Percentage Changes, by Gender
	Men				Women
Group	1983-87	1992-96	Percentage Change^a		1983-87	1992-96	Percentage Change^a
No visual impairments...................................	29,574	31,885	7.52	^***	27,082	29,608	8.91	^***
Visual impairments........................................	21,110	21,349	1.13		19,339	21,152	8.96
-Blind in both eyes.....................................	16,969	17,741	4.45		20,925	18,613	-11.70
-Other visual impairments..........................	21,989	22,149	0.72		18,952	21,947	14.65	^**
Vision-related diseases/disorders................	24,270	28,104	14.64	^**	24,321	24,432	0.46
-Glaucoma...................................................	21,423	27,657	25.40	^**	21,143	20,775	-1.76
-Cataracts.....................................................	23,668	24,375	2.94		20,663	24,464	16.85
-Color blindness..........................................	34,189	32,155	-6.13		NA	NA	NA
-Other vision-related diseases/disorders^b.	24,484	29,204	17.58	^*	28,234	27,058	-4.25
Other impairments
-Hearing impairments..................................	24,027	26,532	9.91	^*	22,321	22,580	1.15
--Deaf in both ears...................................	26,077	22,847	-13.20		19,832	18,181	-8.69
--Other hearing impairments...................	23,682	27,102	13.47	^**	22,911	23,597	2.95
-Mental retardation.....................................	15,593	15,234	-2.33		15,451	17,102	10.14
-Paraplegia, hemiplegia, or quadriplegia...	17,702	22,264	22.83	^**	17,844	21,849	20.18
-Cerebral palsy............................................	19,116	17,698	-7.70		20,477	16,655	-20.59
Note: Asterisks signify when the difference between 1983-87 and 1992-96 is statistically significant at the 99 percent (*), 95 percent (), and 90 percent (*) levels. NA refers to groups where sample size is insufficient. All dollar values are adjusted for inflation to 1998 dollar values. 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 percentage change is the difference between the two periods divided by the average of the two periods multiplied by 100. ^{bThe 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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