Disability Follow-Up to the 1996/97 Family Resources Survey

<P>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</P><br>The aim of the survey was to find out the size and characteristics of the disabled adult population of GB. The research is based on a follow-up survey of disabled respondents in <i>Family Resources Survey, 1996-1997</i>, held under SN 3957 - part of a continuous survey of household characteristics, incomes and resources. Respondents who matched any one of a series of sift criteria based on age, benefit receipt or reported health problems were asked to take part in a further interview. This asked in detail about cause, type and severity of disability, the extra needs and costs which result, and participation in leisure and social activities. <br>
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The depositor has advised that this study should be used in conjunction with the <i>Family Resources Survey, 1996-1997</i>.<br><br><B>Main Topics</B>:<BR><br>The main topics covered are: prevalence, severity and types of disability; socio-demographic characteristics; economic activity; financial circumstances; use of social and health services; needs for assistance; and social participation. <br>
The dataset follows the format of the questionnaire. The follow-up interview had two parts. Part one was concerned with health complaints and difficulties performing everyday activities. It consisted of all the questions needed to apply the severity scales developed for the 1985 survey, plus a number of additional questions related to disability and incapacity benefit entitlement. Anyone reporting any difficulty with any of the activities went on to the second part of the interview. Of the 7300 interviews, 6200 went the full length. The second part of the interview is primarily concerned with extra needs and costs. Questions cover health, social and other services, specialised aids and adaptations, and general items in household budgets, such as food or transport, whose consumption might be affected by disability. The follow-up survey data is held in a single dataset at person level. This includes all cases eligible for the follow-up survey whether or not an interview took place. It contains information on age and sex from the FRS, interview outcomes, and the sift criteria satisfied by each respondent. It also contains all the raw data from the interview, including verbatim reports of health complaints, plus a range of derived variables. These include severity scores, age in five year bands, ICD codes for health complaints, earliest age of onset of each health complaint, flags for the presence of a disability in each of the 13 dimensions making up the scales, duration of each reported disability (excluding intellectual functioning and personal care problems), and Incapacity Benefit all-work test physical and mental component scores. Weights and grossing factors have been calculated for follow-up survey cases, based on the FRS grossing factors, adjusted for the nine month duration of the follow-up survey, and variations in response by age and sex at the follow-up stage.<br>
Standard measures<br>
The OPCS severity scale for disability was used.