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Developing a State Estimate for Children with Disabilities

The first step in developing an estimate is to identify which characteristics of CSHCN you want to measure. Refer to the discussion on defining the population for more information. Refer to the section on synthetic estimates for more information on the method.   

Tables used in the exercises were produced using the SETS software that accompanies the CD-ROM version of the 1994 National Health Interview Survey on Disability (NHIS-DS).  All estimates are based on weighted data.   The state data table was created using data from the Census Bureau also available on CD-ROM.

shows the stratified estimate of children ages 0 to 5 with activity limitation to be 830,996 or 3.4% of children surveyed in the age group.

shows the number of children ages 0 to 5 in State X to be 1,018,444.

The synthetic estimate of children ages 0 to 5 years with activity limitation can be computed as:

1,018,444  x  0.034  =  34,627 children

shows the stratified estimate of children with activity limitation:

ages 0 to 5	3.4%
ages 6 to 11	8.3%

 

shows the following number of children in these age strata in State X:

ages 0 to 5	1,018,444
ages 6 to 11	1,211,253

The synthetic estimate of children ages 0 to 11 years with activity limitation can be computed as:

 

135,161  /  2,229,697  =  0.061   or  6.1%