How Do Working-Age People with Disabilities Spend Their Time? New Evidence from the American Time Use Survey

Yonatan Ben-Shalom, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Priyanka Anand, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

We use the American Time Use Survey to examine the extent to which adults with disabilities—defined using both the new six-question sequence on disability and the traditional work-limitation question—spend more time in health-related activities and less time in other activities than those without disabilities. We find that working-age men and women who report a disability on average work fewer hours per day than men and women without disabilities. On average, less paid work time is offset by more time spent in narrowly-defined leisure activities and sleeping, but a significant amount of that time is also spent in health-related activities. The increase in time spent on health-related activities by those with disabilities is substantial, especially for those who report both a work limitation and ACS disability. On average, those with disabilities spend no more time than others in unpaid work activities, personal care, or a variety of other activities.