DATA ON DISABILITY

Seeman et. al.'s enlightening article1 concludes that older Americans face increased disability. This increase, revealed by data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, particularly affected adults aged 60–69 years, with no significant trends among adults aged 70–79 years, and a lower prevalence among those aged 80 years and older. These findings are confirmed by another survey series, the National Mortality Followback Surveys of 1986 and 1993, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.2,3