Coping with activities of daily living in different care settings.
OBJECTIVE
To measure the functional capacity of elderly people cared for in different health and welfare care settings, with functional capacity defined in terms of activities of daily living.


METHODS
We assessed all people aged > or =65 in health-centre hospitals or nursing homes or receiving home nursing and home help services in Central Finland (n=5652) using the Evergreen activities of daily living index, which comprises nine physical and nine instrumental activities of daily living.


RESULTS
Assessments of functional capacity were obtained for nearly all subjects: only 33 forms (0.6%) were returned with incomplete data. The mean activities of daily living sum score (range 0-54) was lowest for women receiving home nursing (17.3), and highest for women in long-term care at health-centre hospitals (48.4). Low scores described good and high scores poor functional capacity. Age showed no association with the mean activities of daily living sum score in any of the care settings.


CONCLUSIONS
The Evergreen activities of daily living index was easy to use and successfully distinguishes between people in different care settings. Policies of assigning older people to different settings appear to be sound and sensible as the main defining criterion is level of functional capacity rather than age.
Laukkanen
P
P
Health Centre of the City of Jyväskylä, PO Box 52, FIN-40701 Jyväskylä, Finland.
Karppi
P
P
Heikkinen
E
E
Kauppinen
M
M
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009735:Nursing Homes