Disability and Health Data System (DHDS) Overview

Related Pages
Sample data chart from the Disability and Health Data System

Sample chart showing disability status and types among adults 18 years of age or older for the United States, DC & Territories - 2016

What is DHDS?

Disability and Health Data System (DHDS) is an online source of state-level data on adults with disabilities. Users can access information on six functional disability types:

  • cognitive (serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions),
  • hearing (serious difficulty hearing or deafness),
  • mobility (serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs),
  • vision (serious difficulty seeing or blindness),
  • self-care (difficulty dressing or bathing), and
  • independent living (difficulty doing errands alone).

Data on more than 30 health topics among adults with or without disabilities can be explored in DHDS, including smoking, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

Users can customize data maps, charts, and tables, making it easy to see information about their state or region. They can identify health differences between adults with and without disabilities overall, and by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Data can be used in presentations, reports, grant applications, or to inform decision-makers.

You can use DHDS to answer questions, such as:

  • What is the percentage of adults with disabilities in each state?
  • What is the percentage of adults with select functional disability types in each state?
  • How does the percentage of adults with disabilities vary by age, sex, and race/ethnicity in each state?
  • How does the state percentage compare with the national percentage? With percentages in neighboring states?
  • Does the percentage of adults with key health indicators, such as obesity, physical activity and smoking vary across different functional disability types? Among adults with and without disabilities?

Spread the Word

You can become an advocate for health by posting the DHDS button on your website, blog, or social networking site (e.g., Facebook page).

To add the image to your site:

  • click on the three dots in the top left of the image, and
  • click “</>”.
Page last reviewed: September 16, 2020
Content source: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention