People with Mobility Impairments

The CAHPS Item Set for People with Mobility Impairments focuses on the experiences of people with mobility impairments (PWMI) with health plan services. Over 12 million American adults age 18-64 have a mobility impairment stemming from conditions including arthritis, heart or lung problems, unmanaged diabetes or obesity, spinal cord injuries, stroke, and muscle or nerve conditions such as cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, or multiple sclerosis. Many of these adults simultaneously have vision, hearing, emotional, or thought-processing co-impairments.

The questions in this item set can supplement either the commercial or Medicaid version of the Health Plan Survey. Their purpose is to enable health plans and other survey sponsors to compare the experiences of people with and without mobility impairments and to determine where improvements in health plan services are warranted to better serve enrollees with these impairments.

The PWMI Item Set has been incorporated into the Health Plan Surveys'Supplemental Items for Adult Questionnaires ( PDF [

- 317.43 KB] ), which also includes instructions for placing the items into the core questionnaire. The items are available in both English and Spanish.

Read About the Item Set for People with Mobility Impairments. ( PDF Version [

- 206.42 KB] )

To download both the supplemental items as well as the descriptive document, go to: Get Health Plan Surveys and Instructions.

Learn about the development of the Item Set for People with Mobility Impairments.

Topics Covered by the Item Set for People with Mobility Impairments

The Item Set for People with Mobility Impairments consists of 21 questions. One question confirms that the respondent visited the doctor's office; three questions function as “screeners” to identify adult respondents with mobility impairments: