[Mobility in the community-dwelling elderly and its correlates].
OBJECTIVE
To examine mobility level in community-dwelling elderly using a questionnaire of walking ability over a distance of 1 km and its relationship to activities of daily living (ADL) and quality of life (QOL) indices, and to obtain clues to mobility impairment in the elderly.


METHODS
A total of 3,266 community-dwelling elderly aged 60 to 84 years were interviewed with questionnaires for assessing mobility, ADL and QOL levels. The mobility was assessed by walking ability over a distance of 1 km, and the ADL levels were by conventional basic ADL, comprehensive mobility index and the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence, and the QOL levels were by self-rated health, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) short-version and Life Satisfaction Index-K (LSIK). They were also asked about diseases for which they regularly consult doctors, and about subjective symptoms.


RESULTS
Eighty-seven percent of the subjects responded to the interview, with 86.3% of male responders and 77.6% of female responders answering that they could walk on foot over a distance of 1 km without any difficulty. The percentages of subjects who answered that they could walk but with difficulty or could not walk over a distance of 1 km increased with advancing age. The correlation analysis between 1 km-walking ability and other mobility indices showed that 1 km-walking ability was a better index for identifying a slight to moderate mobility impairment, and that the mobility level was closely associated with daily activity levels in the community-dwelling elderly. The elderly with an impaired mobility had lowered self-rated health, GDS and LSIK scores. After controlling for sex and age, it was shown that prevalences of musculoskeltal (knee arthritis, lower back pain, etc.), cerebrovascular and heart diseases, and complaints of subjective symptoms which were associated with physical frailty, were closely associated with impaired mobility. Hearing and visual disturbances also had a significant relation to a lowered mobility.


CONCLUSIONS
Walking ability over a distance of 1 km may be a good index for discriminating differing mobility levels which community-dwelling elderly have intrinsically. The possible etiological factors for a lowered mobility in the elderly include musculoskeletal, cerebrovascular and heart diseases; physical frailty; and hearing and visual disturbances.
Shinkai
S
S
Department of Public Health, Ehime University School of Medicine.
Fujimoto
K
K
Watanabe
K
K
Kondo
H
H
Okada
K
K
Wang
D G
DG
Konishi
M
M
Ono
T
T
Ohnishi
M
M
Tanaka
A
A
Horiguchi
J
J
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged / Q000502:physiology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*