Table 1. Self-reported disability, percentage working for income in the past 2 weeks, pain interfering with work, and subjective well-being for mature adults (aged 45+ y) in the MLSFH.
| Age Group | Characteristic | Year | Percent (2010) Who Worked for Income in Past 2 Weeks | Percent (2010) for Whom Pain Interfered with Work in Last 4 Weeks | Percent (2010) Who Are Somewhat/Very Unsatisfied with Life | ||||||||
| 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | |||||||||||
| N | Percent | N | Percent | N | Percent | N | Percent | N | Percent | N | Percent | ||
| 45–64 y | Disability Status | ||||||||||||
| Active | 427 | 72.4% | 537 | 67.4% | 428 | 56.8% | 165 | 38.5% | 64 | 14.9% | 16 | 3.7% | |
| Moderately limited | 132 | 22.4% | 200 | 25.1% | 239 | 31.7% | 82 | 34.3% | 120 | 50.2% | 23 | 9.6% | |
| Severely limited | 31 | 5.3% | 41 | 5.1% | 64 | 8.5% | 16 | 26.2% | 40 | 65.6% | 16 | 26.2% | |
| Dead | — | — | 19 | 2.4% | 23 | 3.1% | — | — | — | — | |||
| Men | 316 | 53.6% | 362 | 45.4% | 340 | 45.1% | — | — | — | — | |||
| 65+ y | Disability Status | ||||||||||||
| Active | 34 | 54.0% | 120 | 41.0% | 87 | 24.6% | 23 | 26.4% | 18 | 20.6% | 5 | 5.7% | |
| Moderately limited | 20 | 31.7% | 108 | 36.9% | 142 | 40.1% | 34 | 23.9% | 75 | 52.8% | 14 | 9.9% | |
| Severely limited | 9 | 14.3% | 62 | 21.2% | 93 | 26.3% | 8 | 9.0% | 69 | 77.5% | 26 | 29.2% | |
| Dead | — | — | 3 | 1.0% | 32 | 9.0% | — | — | — | — | |||
| Men | 43 | 68.3% | 142 | 48.5% | 170 | 48.0% | — | — | — | — | |||
| Average Age | 54.2 | 59.0 | 61.0 | ||||||||||
Disability classification is based on MLSFH questions (1) “Do you have any health problems that limit you in carrying out moderate activities?” and (2) “Do you have any health problems that limit you in carrying out strenuous activities?”, with each question providing a list of moderate/strenuous activities and response categories being “not limited,” “limited a little,” and “limited a lot.” Individuals who indicated that they had no limitations in either set of activities were classified as healthy, those who responded “somewhat limited” on either question were classified as moderately disabled, and individuals who responded “limited a lot” on either question were classified as severely disabled. “Dead” refers to mortality between survey waves among respondents who were interviewed in the MLSFH 2006 and/or 2008. “Pain interfering with work” is based on the question “During the past 4 wk, how much did pain interfere with your normal work (including both work outside the home and housework)?” Individuals responding “moderately,” “quite a bit,” or “extremely” were classified as being limited by pain. Individuals responding “somewhat unsatisfied” or “very unsatisfied” to the question “How satisfied are you with your life, all things considered?” were classified as having low life satisfaction. Three severely limited individuals aged 45–64 y and four severely limited individuals aged 65+ y had missing values on working for income, pain interfering with work, and life satisfaction, and were removed from the denominator for percentage calculations.