In 2023, the National Institutes of Health designated people with disabilities as a population with health disparities. Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology and O'Hanley Faculty Scholar wanted to learn more about these disparities so he conducted a study, “Disability Mortality Disparity: Risk Of Mortality For Disabled Adults Nearly Twice That For Nondisabled Adults, 2008–19.”

Landes found that people with cognitive, mobility, vision, hearing and self-care impairments are twice as likely to die than people without disabilities. 

“It doesn’t matter your age or your gender or your race, or your level of education, or your income or your health status. If you’re disabled, you’re about two times more likely to die than a non-disabled person,” says Landes.

“So if we know that over a quarter of the American population has this increased mortality risk, in my mind, we should be doing everything we can in order to mitigate it," Landes says.

Watch the full interview via Spectrum News.