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Abstract
This report is a sequel to Human Resources in the Ozarks Region...With Emphasis on the Poor, published in May 1970 as Agricultural Economic Report No. 182. Prepared by the Economic Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in cooperation with the Agricultural Experiment Stations at the Universities of Arkansas and Missouri, AER 182 examined the socioeconomic conditions of rural people in the Ozarks region of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. In the sample of 1,413 household heads in that study, 31 percent or 439 heads, reported total or partial disabilities. The current report describes and analyzes these 439 heads and their households. Of these households, 41 percent were in poverty. Household heads' incomes were small because many were unable to hold regular jobs and most heads were of advanced age. They generally had low skills and very few had completed high school. Nearly 44 percent of those who had jobs were farmers. Medical expenses in households with disabled heads were quite high and only 70 percent of them had any health insurance.