Disability is regarded as an serious issue in elderly individuals that affects quality of life. This study aims to explore the relationship between disability and all-cause mortality in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999–2002). A total of 1,834 participants in the age range of 60–84 years were included. Five major domains of disability, including activities of daily living (ADL), general physical activities (GPA), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), lower extremity mobility (LEM), and leisure and social activities (LSA) were acquired by self-reporting. We applied an extended-model approach with Cox (proportional hazards) regression analysis to investigate the relationship between different features of disability and all-cause mortality risk in the study population. During a mean follow-up of 5.7 years, 77 deaths occurred. An increased risk of all-cause mortality was identified in elderly individuals with disability after adjusting for potential confounders (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.23; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29 to 3.85; P = 0.004). Participants with more than one domain of disability were associated with a higher risk of mortality (Ptrend = 0.047). Adjusted HRs and 95% CIs for each domain of disability were as follows: 2.53 (1.49 to 4.31), 1.99 (0.93 to 4.29), 1.74 (0.72 to 4.16), 1.57 (0.76 to 3.27), and 1.52 (0.93 to 2.48) for LEM, LSA, ADL, IADL, and GPA, respectively. This study supports an increased association between disability and all-cause mortality in the US elderly population. Disability in LEM might be good predictor of high risk of all-cause mortality in the elderly subjects.
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