Prevalence of long-term disability in Portugal, 2014: evidence of variation by personal and contextual factors.

Abstract Background Disability is not just a health problem. It is a wider phenomenon that reflects the gap between a person´s capacities and their ability to fully perform the role demanded by society. Both personal and environmental factors are major contributors to disability. Objective: We aimed to estimate the prevalence of self-reported disability, overall and by sex, and associated factors in the Portuguese population in 2014. Methods: This was a cross sectional study based on data from the Portuguese National Health Interview Survey (2014) (n=18,204). Long-term disability was evaluated based on the respondent reporting reasons for current disability lasting more than 6 months. Sex, age group, region, marital status, self-rated health, having or not health insurance, educational level, income, tobacco and alcohol consumption, physical activity and body mass index were considered as independent variables. A poisson model was performed to identify factors associated with disability. Results: Approximately 40% of the respondents reported having some long-term disability. Disability prevalence was higher in women than men (44.4% and 34.2%, respectively). Results showed age, region, education, self-rated health, physical activity and body mass index were associated with disability (p