CDC’s proposed redesign of health survey omits questions about disabilities

A proposed redesign of the federal government’s annual health survey would result in significant undercounting of Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, according to advocates for the vulnerable population (Source: “As CDC redesigns annual health survey, it removes questions about disabilities,” Stat News, Oct. 1).
 
In August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics proposed an overhaul of the National Health Interview Survey, which has been collecting a broad range of Americans’ health data for researchers and policymakers to make use of since 1957. The overhaul would remove several disability-related questions, even though more than a quarter of Americans have one.
 
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services declined to answer questions from Stat News about why questions tracking certain disabilities were struck from the redesign, but indicated that the changes were driven by a push to lower the cost of data collection.