
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 8, 1993                   TAG: 9310080125
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Short

CDC RELEASES FIGURES ON DISABLED AMERICANS

The number of Americans too disabled to work has dropped slightly but still totals more than 12.8 million, with the highest rates in West Virginia and Kentucky, the government reported Thursday.

About 81.5 Americans per 1,000 people ages 16 to 64 were work-disabled in 1990, the latest data available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That's down from 85.2 in 1980.

In Virginia, the rate is 75.4 per 1,000 people.

The CDC attributed the drop to more open working conditions and vocational rehabilitation. But the inability to work still costs the nation about $111.6 billion every year in medical costs and lost wages, the CDC said.

The CDC urged states to research what causes most of the disability among workers and to move to prevent the disorders or retrain workers to cope with them. - Associated Press

by CNB