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. 2013 Mar 14;91(1):5–36. doi: 10.1111/milq.12001

Overall Disparity in Functional Limitation Calculated by the Proposed Approach and the Wisconsin Measure, 2009

Overall Disparity

State Proposed Approach Wisconsin Measure
Alabama 0.062 0.155
Alaska 0.035 0.113
Arizona 0.028 0.080
Arkansas 0.063 0.160
California 0.024 0.064
Colorado 0.029 0.092
Connecticut 0.028 0.085
DC 0.054 0.130
Delaware 0.043 0.132
Florida 0.033 0.089
Georgia 0.036 0.081
Hawaii 0.021 0.057
Idaho 0.051 0.156
Illinois 0.029 0.079
Indiana 0.041 0.116
Iowa 0.033 0.101
Kansas 0.033 0.098
Kentucky 0.078 0.199
Louisiana 0.042 0.087
Maine* 0.033 0.119
Maryland 0.026 0.072
Massachusetts 0.031 0.099
Michigan 0.046 0.133
Minnesota 0.021 0.094
Mississippi 0.061 0.135
Missouri 0.056 0.166
Montana* 0.023 0.068
Nebraska 0.038 0.121
Nevada 0.022 0.071
New Hampshire 0.048 0.155
New Jersey 0.023 0.069
New Mexico 0.051 0.123
New York 0.029 0.074
North Carolina 0.044 0.115
North Dakota* 0.045 0.135
Ohio 0.047 0.134
Oklahoma 0.049 0.117
Oregon 0.033 0.099
Pennsylvania 0.034 0.105
Rhode Island 0.031 0.095
South Carolina 0.056 0.145
South Dakota* 0.041 0.112
Tennessee 0.056 0.139
Texas 0.037 0.094
Utah 0.024 0.077
Vermont* 0.024 0.093
Virginia 0.031 0.084
Washington 0.027 0.082
West Virginia 0.083 0.215
Wisconsin 0.027 0.082
Wyoming* 0.018 0.076

Notes: 1. “No functional limitation” is defined as not having a limitation in any of the following six areas: hearing, vision, cognition, ambulation, self-care, and independent living.

2. Overall disparity measured by the proposed approach is an average of income-, education-, sex-, and race/ethnicity–specific disparities in each state.

3. For example, the overall disparity of 0.018 in Wyoming measured by the proposed approach suggests that in order to eliminate disparity in functional limitation in Wyoming on average across the four attributes considered, an additional 1.8% of the population from the less healthy (and often disadvantaged) groups must become free from functional limitation.

4. Due to the small numbers (cell counts less than 50), combined groups, rather than a single group, are used as the reference in the calculation of race/ethnicity–specific disparity in the six states marked with an asterisk.

5. The Wisconsin measure is calculated by (1) identifying the healthiest group, regardless of its attributes; (2) calculating the sum of the differences in health between the healthiest and each of all the other groups; and (3) dividing this sum by the total number of groups minus one.

6. For example, the Wisconsin measure of 0.076 in Wyoming suggests that the average difference in the fraction of persons free from functional limitation between the healthiest group and that of all other groups is 7.6%.

7. All analyses are weighted, and the functional limitation is age standardized using the U.S. 2000 standard population.