Improving Health

of People Living with Disabilities

What to know

  • Disabilities include difficulty with movement, hearing, seeing, communicating or concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.
  • CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) works to ensure that people of all abilities are able to live their lives to the fullest.
A man in a wheelchair at the park

Highlights

A happy family together at home
1 in 4 adults has some kind of disability in the United States today.

As a result of NCBDDD work on …

Disability and Health
19 state based and two national programs increase the number of people with a disability who receive preventive care and health promotion from state public health activities and athletes with a disability receive needed healthcare screenings.

Muscular Dystrophy
Healthcare providers improve care for people living with muscular dystrophy using standard treatment recommendations informed by our findings.

Spina Bifida
The more than 1,400 babies born with spina bifida every year receive better care throughout their lifetime because of NCBDDD data on treatments and surgical care.

Congenital Heart Defects (CHD)
As nearly 2.5 million people in the United States with a CHD live longer and healthier lives, they and their healthcare providers improve care using our data on possible health challenges and treatment needs.

Budget

Budget Line

FY23

Disability and Health

45.5M

Spina Bifida

$7.5M

Congenital Heart Defects

$8.3M

Muscular Dystrophy

$7.5M

Total 

$68.8M