The Future of SIPP for Analyzing Disability and Health

This paper was requested as part of the National Academy of Sciences, Committee on National Statistics Panel to Evaluate the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). SIPP is sponsored by the Bureau of the Census and has been an ongoing longitudinal survey of the civilian non-institutionalized population since 1983. This paper outlines the data elements in SIPP pertaining to health and disability, examines policy needs for disability and health from the perspective of HHS, determines how these policy needs have been met by SIPP, describes specific analyses of health and disability, and makes specific recommendations for future SIPP surveys. The SIPP surveys contain a wide variety of health and disability data items, including health insurance, health care utilization, participation in federal disability programs, functional disability (i.e., ADLs/IADLs), work disability, and the disability of children. [37 PDF pages]