Functional limitations and disability among elders in the Framingham Study

The measurement of physical disability as an indication of the impact of disease is commonly seen in research. However, these measures often do not clearly differentiate between functional limitations and daily performance of an activity. We measured the differences between self-reported disability...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) 1992-06, Vol.82 (6), p.841-845
Main Authors: Kelly-Hayes, M, Jette, A M, Wolf, P A, D'Agostino, R B, Odell, P M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of Daily Living
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Analysis. Health state
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition Disorders - complications
Cognition Disorders - diagnosis
Cognition Disorders - physiopathology
Disabled Persons - classification
Disabled Persons - statistics & numerical data
Epidemiology
Evaluation Studies as Topic
Female
General aspects
Geriatric Assessment
Health Status
Health Status Indicators
Humans
Logistic Models
Male
Massachusetts
Medical sciences
Mental Status Schedule
Middle Aged
Older people
People with disabilities
Predictive Value of Tests
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Risk Factors
Social research
Surveys and Questionnaires
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The measurement of physical disability as an indication of the impact of disease is commonly seen in research. However, these measures often do not clearly differentiate between functional limitations and daily performance of an activity. We measured the differences between self-reported disability and observed functional limitations in six activities of daily living tasks among community-dwelling elders. The value of functional limitations vs disability measures in determining risk factors for disablement was ascertained. Systematic differences were found among the 1453 participants. At least 89% of the time when a difference was identified, the subjects ranked disability greater than the functional limitations observed. For those who were cognitively impaired, discrepancies occurred up to 11% of the time. In determining risk factors for disablement, we found that neurological impairments were associated with both functional limitations and disability, while sociocultural factors were associated with disability only. Our findings suggest that physical functional limitations and disability in the elderly are two distinct concepts and that the measure of choice should be determined by research objectives and the type of population being studied.
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.82.6.841