Concepts and Social Variations of Disability in Working-Age Populations

Abstract

Disability has been conceptualized in different ways, either as a notion confined to a minority group characterized by permanent bodily impairment and social exclusion or as a universal human condition of functional decline that is becoming more prevalent with increasing age. This latter notion seems more appropriate if applied to working-age populations, in particular as disability is analyzed on a continuum of varying severity and duration. This chapter deals with the prevalence and social distribution of disability in middle-aged to early-old-age working populations in modern societies, using evidence from three cohort studies, the Health and Retirement Study (USA), the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. It demonstrates