Self-reported Physical Activity, Health, And Health Behaviors Among Adults With And Without Disability

Abstract

PURPOSE: To describe the associations between disability, physical activity, chronic diseases, and high risk health behaviors among respondents to the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). METHODS: 186,844 men and 289,697 women ≥18 years of age were classified as disabled (DA) or able bodied (AB) and grouped by age [younger: 18-44 years, middle-aged: 45-64 years, older: ≥65 years]. Physical activity level was categorized as meeting aerobic guidelines only, meeting muscle strengthening guidelines only, meeting both aerobic and muscle strengthening guidelines, or meeting no guidelines. Chronic diseases studied included asthma, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Examined high risk health behaviors were smoking (currently smoking or not) and alcohol use (misuse or not). Contingency tables, odds ratios, and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Significance was set a priori at p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: Levels of physical activity differed across categories of disability and age. Compared with AB, DA reported more chronic diseases (OR 5.0; 95% CI: 4.89-5.21), and were more likely to smoke (OR 1.54; 95% CI: 1.49-1.59), and misuse alcohol (OR 1.7; CI: 1.64-1.77). DA were 2.14 (95% CI: 2.06-2.23) times more likely to meet no guidelines than to meet aerobic and muscle strengthening guideline combined compared with AB. However, DA were 1.59 (95% CI: 1.50-1.69) times more likely than AB to meet the muscle strengthening guidelines than to meet either aerobic only (OR 1.38; 1.32-1.44) or aerobic and muscle strengthening guidelines combined. There were more chronic diseases, high risk behaviors, and poorer physical activity with increasing age in both DA and AB, with DA having poorer health in each age group. CONCLUSIONS: Disabled persons have more chronic diseases, engage in more high risk health behaviors, and are less physically active than abled-bodied persons. Disabled persons who were physically active are more likely to engage in strength training rather than in aerobic exercise or a combination of both. Further work exploring the reasons for these differences is needed.