Physical Performance Test and Activities of Daily Living Scales in the Assessment of Health Status in Elderly People

Objective: To compare the ability of Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), and the Physical Performance Test (PPT) to detect health status impairments.

Patients: Five hundred forty nine community-dwelling elders (89.8% of the eligible elderly population) aged 70 and over; mean age [was] 76.8 +/- 6.1; 179 were males and 370 females.

Setting: City of Ospitaletto, Brescia, Northern Italy.

Measurements: A multidimensional questionnaire assessing demographic variables, indicators of social activities, psychological function, and somatic health and functional status (BADL and IADL). Also, the PPT was administered.

Results: Cognitive and effective status were independently associated with BADL, IADL function, and age; number of drugs were also associated with IADL function. Other health variables (number of diseases, number of symptoms, and global health score) did not independently contribute to explaining the BADL and IADL variance. Cognitive status, number of symptoms, number of diseases, number of drugs, and global health were independently associated with PPT.

Conclusions: Chronic diseases may affect functional status in a manner that is insensitive to traditional self-report ADL and IADL measures. Performance-based measures may capture this impairment before more severe functional loss emerges.