CREATING AN OVERALL MEASURE OF SEVERITY OF DISABILITY FOR THE OFFICE-OF-POPULATION-CENSUSES-AND-SURVEYS DISABILITY SURVEY

A new measure of severity of disability was required for the survey of disabled people carried out by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys for the Department of Health and Social Security. The method used was based on the consensus of a number of people acting as judges who were asked to assess the relative degree of limitation of various disabilities and combinations of disabilities. High levels of agreement between judges were found. A unidimensional interval scale of severity of disability was constructed from the judgements for use in estimating the prevalence of disability at different levels of severity in Great Britain.