Americans with disabilities worry about proposed changes to major national health survey

The federal government plans to dramatically shrink the size of its National Health Interview Survey, sparking concerns about underestimating disability rates NEW YORK (AP) — The federal government is planning to dramatically shrink its most influential health survey, and some researchers worry that the changes will underestimate how many Americans are disabled. At least half the survey questions could be axed.

The cost-saving change is part of an ongoing effort to slim down the 69-year-old National Health Interview Survey, which for years has been suffering from declining response rates. As many as a quarter of wheelchair users and more than a third of people who are blind or deaf could be miscategorized as not disabled because of the shorter survey, according to some advocates and researchers. That could leave the government unable to recognize the health needs of many disabled Americans, or the damage caused by changes to Medicaid or other health insurance programs, they say.

The cuts are being ironed out and officials predict the whittling won’t be as severe as what’s been suggested in earlier proposals. Questions that have been proposed for removal deal with memory, fatigue, arthritis, difficulty walking and climbing stairs, as well as others about the use of hearing aids, canes, wheelchairs and scooters. “We just won’t know any of that anymore,” said Scott Landes, a Syracuse University sociology professor who researches people with disabilities.

Officials are still determining exactly how much cutting will take place. Currently, the survey has 490 health questions for adults. officials expect that the 2028 questionnaire will have about 200 to 225 questions, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Stephen Blumberg, who oversees the survey.

Census Bureau workers conduct the survey every year on behalf of the CDC. It’s a $40 million annual project, and around 30,000 households answer the questions each year. Their answers have shaped the public’s understanding of topics including how common chronic fatigue syndrome is, how many people get X-rays, what proportion of U.S.

children suffer seizures, and how many Americans have health insurance. The survey’s responses also are the foundation of how we measure the nation’s progress — or backsliding — on problems such as obesity and smoking. Fewer people are interested in participating in such surveys.