关键词: 失能率, 老年专项调查, 测量方法, KATZ量表

Abstract: The magnitude and trend of the disabled elderly population are important basis for evaluating demands of the elderly for long-term care services and planning development of social service system in an aging society. However, domestic existing data and research have not reached consensus on this issue. Using functions status information of the elderly in multiple surveys, this study examines the criteria of disability status in these surveys, and compares the disability rates reported from those surveys, with an attempt to obtain a reasonable estimation of the disability rate of the elderly in China. The analysis of data of three special surveys on ageing shows that KATZ Scale is an comparable tool usually adopted for the measurement of function status in those surveys, and the disability rate of Chinese elderly is between 10.48% and 13.31%. In order to facilitate further study on trends and patterns of disability of the elderly，this paper suggests that a consistent measurement in disability of the elderly for data collection be adopted, the sample size of the oldest-old people be expanded, and the representativeness of samples for different regions be improved in future research surveys.

Keywords: Disability Rate, Special Surveys on Ageing, Measurement Method, Katz Scale