Age and capacity devaluation: a replication

This study replicates and extends an earlier study of disabled men based on 1966 national survey data which supported the hypothesis of capacity devaluation among older persons who considered themselves disabled, by finding that age was related to self-reported severity of work disability independent of several measures of functional capacity loss and prior job requirements. We analyzed data from a 1972 national survey of disabled persons in the U.S. aged 20-64 for women as well as men, utilizing more comprehensive and direct measures of capacity loss and prior work situation. Cross-tabular and logit analyses largely confirm the finding in the earlier study and extend them to disabled women: age independently affected self-perceived severity of work disability. Capacity devaluation among the near-aged occurred particularly among less incapacitated blue-collar men but its occurrence was not greater among those with more specific exertional requirements in the prior job. The results generally support the conclusion that older persons with work limitations devalue their residual capacities for work. Older persons' evaluations of their work abilities appear to be influenced by social expectations of declining capacities with age and by social sanctions permitting premature withdrawal from work for reasons of health.