The Framingham Disability Study: I. Social disability among the aging

Abstract

The Framingham Disability Study (FDS), a recent component of the Heart Disease Epidemiological Study in Framingham, Massachusetts, was designed to investigate the nature and magnitude of disability among non-institutionalized aging adults. From September 1976, through November 1978, 2,654 individuals aged 55 to 84 years from the original cohort were interviewed in person or by telephone (94 per cent of the potential participant pool). This paper reports results on the prevalence of social disability in five areas: housekeeping, transportation, social interaction, food preparation, and grocery shopping. Only 6 per cent of the sample have existing unmet needs in one or more of these five areas. The magnitude of social disability increases with advancing age. Women, in general, report a higher degree of unmet social needs than men. These findings are compared with other epidemiological investigations of social disability among the elderly.