Scott Landes

Associate Professor, Sociology, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs Link

O'Hanley Faculty Scholar
Faculty Associate, Aging Studies Institute
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies

CAPS Biography:

My research primarily focuses on the measurement of disability in population aging and health surveys, as well as demographic analyses of mortality disparities among disabled adults in the United States, both related to the CAPS signature theme of health and well-being and the CAPS cross-cutting themes of policy and specific populations. My work is concerned with the accuracy of the disability measures used in nationally representative surveys, and as I have recently shown, the current questions used to measure disability in the NHIS significantly undercount this health disparities population. A prior line of my research, funded by an NIA R03 grant as PI (NIA AG065638), focused on a different disability measurement issue by examining the causes and consequences of inaccurately reporting intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) as the underlying cause of death on U.S. death certificates. With these studies’ results, I published recommended changes in CDC death certificate coding guidelines for adults with IDD.  

Beyond examining the consequences of disability measurement, my research focuses on mortality disparities between adults with and without disability. I published a recent paper in Health Affairs that provides evidence that disabled adults have a mortality disadvantage across disability statuses as well as an array of sociodemographic and health characteristics. A separate line of my disability mortality research focuses on the mortality disadvantage among people with IDD, which persists across the life course but is more pronounced at younger ages, has improved for some demographic groups over time, and varies across U.S. states. During the pandemic, my IDD mortality research provided the primary evidence in the United States of more severe COVID-19 outcomes among people with IDD. The empirical evidence from my COVID-19 studies were covered widely by U.S. and international media, underscoring the added risk experienced by this health disparities population during the pandemic, and were critical in ensuring that people with IDD received prioritization during the initial vaccination distribution in the United States, and that IDD was recognized by the CDC as a condition associated with increased COVID-19 risk.