Disabilities and functional limitations of life due to disease as determined in a survey among the Munich population.

Information on disease-conditioned functional limitations and disabilities was collected by means of a random sampling of the Munich population in the age group between 20 and 65 years (n=1,384) during 1981/82. Evaluation was based on written and spoken interviews. The frequency of these disabilities varied with their severity: Every third to fourth interrogated person stated that he or her suffered from functional limitations; 16 per cent said that certain professional or household activities were hampered; every tenth interrogated person was totally unable to exercise his or her profession or to look after the household; conditions of marked need for help (eg in leaving the house, in moving about, or in purchasing and preparing food) occurred in 1 to 5 per cent of the persons included in the survey. The disabilities displayed a systematic cumulative pattern. They increased both with age and with the number of diseases affecting the persons concerned. Both factors are independent of each other; it seems, however, that the influence of the disease on the frequency and severity of the disability is more marked than the influence of age