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A new report regarding Americans’ health shows that about 20 percent of U.S. adults have a disability of some sort.
The study, carried out by experts at the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention proves that Americans’ health is unfortunately worse than it was previously thought because obesity is not the only problem they face.
However, “disability ” is a very wide term that can refer to many conditions, from difficulty in walking or climbing stairs to cognitive loss, or the inability to take care of oneself.
The highest number of people with various disabilities was found in the southern part of the country. Alabama came first, with the highest percentage of people with disabilities that went up to 31.5 percent, followed by Tennessee and Mississippi, with 31. 4 percent.
“This report is a snapshot of the percent of adults with disabilities in the U.S., so we can get a better understanding of who people with disabilities are,” said Elizabeth Courtney-Long, who is a researcher and a health scientist at the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
Even if the distinction between these states is clearly pointed out in the report, it is not yet clear what causes the difference between them.
The director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden expressed his opinion that these numbers should not be too worrying, because we are all likely to develop a disability of some sort at a certain moment in our lives.
What we can do, as a society is to accept and encourage these people to be part of the community, so that they will never feel rejected. It is especially important for health experts and systems to do their best to meet the needs of people with disabilities, whose number seems to be on increase mode.
According to the chief of CDC’s Division of Human Development and Disability, Georgina Peacock, the Americans with Disabilities Act has really had a great impact on people who are disabled in any way. Nowadays, they have both better access to employment opportunities, but also physical access to transport means and buildings.
The results of the study were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report last week, on the 31st of July.
Image Source: coag.gov
