Mobility limitations in the Medicare population: prevalence and sociodemographic and clinical correlates.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the prevalence of and clinical markers associated with mobility limitations in Medicare Current Beneficiary Community Survey (MCBS) respondents.


METHODS
Cross-sectional analysis of a community survey.


METHODS
Community.


METHODS
Twelve thousand seven hundred sixty-nine respondents from the 2001 MCBS, aged 65 and older.


METHODS
Four questions from the MCBS were used to create four levels of mobility limitation: none, mild, moderate, and severe. Sampling weights were used to calculate estimates of means and proportions of the entire Medicare population for each mobility limitation category. A polytomous logistic regression analysis was used to model the association between four levels of mobility limitation and sociodemographic and clinical variables.


RESULTS
Prevalence of mobility limitations ranged from 9.5 million (mild) to 1.2 million (severe). Increasing severity of mobility limitation was associated with older age, being female, reporting fair or poor health, being overweight, smoking, having a greater number of comorbidities, having an annual income below $25,000, having less than a high school education, being unmarried, and living with others.


CONCLUSIONS
National prevalence estimates suggest that functional mobility limitation is a significant problem for many older adults and is associated with some potentially modifiable characteristics.
Shumway-Cook
Anne
A
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ashumway@u.washington.edu
Ciol
Marcia A
MA
Yorkston
Kathryn M
KM
Hoffman
Jeanne M
JM
Chan
Leighton
L
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare; D015995:Prevalence; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D016138:Walking