More than one in four American adults has some form of disability, the highest number since records began nearly a decade ago.
According to data from the CDC, which asked about cognitive, visual and mobility-related limitations, the number of Americans with a self-reported disability in 2022 reached 71 million.
This is up from 61 million in 2016, the first year the CDC began collecting data on demographics.
There are multiple reasons for the rise, including an aging population and a rise in chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity. Now the CDC suggests it may also be linked to long Covid, which was included in the study for the first time.
The map above is based on data submitted to the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which collected reports of long-term Covid symptoms contributing to high rates of disability.
In the first year the data was tracked, 61 million Americans reported having some form of disability
The CDC tracks different types of disabilities, including hearing, vision, cognition, mobility, self-care, and independent living disabilities.
When collecting data, it was examined, among other things, whether people suffer from hearing and vision impairments, whether they can move independently and perform tasks, whether they have difficulty concentrating, and more.
The CDC reports were provided voluntarily by citizens, meaning the agency could not confirm the medical accuracy of the reports.
Data collected in 2022, the most recent year available, reported that seven percent of Americans had long Covid, about 18 million adults. Long Covid is characterized by a long list of persistent symptoms after Covid infection, including breathing problems, chronic fatigue, brain fog and headaches.
Research into long Covid is ongoing, but there is some skepticism about whether it is a distinct condition or just a collection of symptoms, and how widespread the condition really is.
According to the CDC data, Arkansas had the highest number of residents with disabilities, with 38 percent of people reporting having some form of disability. This was followed by West Virginia, at 37 percent, and Louisiana and Mississippi, at 36 percent.
Washington, D.C., and Hawaii had the lowest rates of disability, with 21 percent and 22 percent reporting disability, respectively. Following those states were New Jersey at 23 percent and Illinois at 24 percent.
An earlier CDC report found that the highest rates of disability occur in rural areas, where an estimated one-third of residents have a disability.
Disability rates are higher in states with more rural, remote areas than in urban areas. This may be due to limited access to care, including preventive care, occupational hazards in sectors such as mining and agriculture, and the fact that rural areas tend to have older populations.
The most recent figures are based on data from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which allows respondents to self-report up to six types of functional impairment.
For the first time in its review, the CDC included a question about long-term Covid-related symptoms that are disabling. However, the CDC stopped short of calling long-term Covid-19 a disability on its own.
Data were collected on experiences of Long COVID, defined as symptoms lasting three months or longer that the person did not have before COVID, to help us better understand the relationship between disability and Long COVID.
In 2019, a year before the Covid pandemic left millions of people with long-term Covid symptoms, disability rates were lower than they will be in 2022.
However, the report did not explicitly state that the restrictions reported in the BRFSS were directly related to long COVID. Still, the data help to better understand the relationships between restrictions and long COVID.
Participants were specifically classified into one of six types of disability if they answered yes to the question of whether they were deaf or blind even if they wore glasses, had difficulty concentrating or making decisions, had difficulty walking or climbing stairs, could not wash or dress themselves independently, or had difficulty running errands alone.
Symptoms of long-term Covid were more common in people with disabilities than in people without disabilities – about 11 and 7 percent, respectively.
The agency said: ‘CDC continues to work with clinicians, public health partners, and other federal agencies to better understand the impact of Long COVID generally and, based on the data, to better identify and support the needs of people with disabilities.’
Older people reported the highest rate of disability compared to other age groups: 44 percent of people over 65.
And when examining disability status by race/ethnicity, the groups with the highest prevalence, both about 39 percent, identified as American Indian or Alaska Native and other/multiracial.
The CDC has previously reported that among working-age adults with only one disability, the most common type of disability was mobility impairment (34 percent), followed by hearing (24 percent) and cognition (about 23 percent).
The CDC said: ‘These findings underscore the fact that people with disabilities are a large part of every community and population. Many of us know, or are, someone with a disability, and disability inclusion benefits everyone.
‘It is important to remember that disability is not a consequence of health. It is part of the way people experience life, such as hearing, seeing, moving, processing information and taking care of themselves.’
