In 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services adopted a core set of six questions to identify people with a disability across federal surveys measuring population health. Given the broad use of this disability measure, it is important to understand what subset of the population experiencing limitations is captured by this compact question set.  Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation 2008 Panel, our analysis examines the health conditions of individuals captured by the six-question measure of disability. This analysis provides important information regarding the interpretation of the 6-question disability measure, as well as insight into the application of these questions in more specific research or policy development.