title: Evaluation of performance status of daily living activities and of the future risk of falls in the non-handicapped, community-dwelling elderly.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is a growing need to evaluate the performance status of the activities of daily living (ADL) of the elderly in the rapidly aging Japanese society. The purpose of this study was to verify the usefulness of our new scoring sheet for assessing present ADL status and to clarify whether or not the assessed ADL status can predict the future risk of adverse conditions related to falls.
  
  
  METHODS
  The validation study was performed using 116 non-handicapped community-dwelling Japanese elderly at least 60 years of age. Of those subjects, 44 were also analyzed for the relationship between baseline ADL status and subsequent risk of adverse conditions related to falls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The daily living performance score sheet had good internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.82 and a sequential hierarchical structure that reflected the difficulty of the activities. The total score was significantly and positively associated with six of eight subscale scores on the Short-Form 36-Item Health Survey (P < 0.01). In the follow-up study, every one-point decrease in total score was significantly associated with a 39% elevated risk of a stumble or fall (P = 0.022) and also borderline significantly associated with higher risks of a fall, anxiety while walking indoors, and anxiety while walking outdoors (P < 0.10).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our new scoring sheet can reliably and comprehensively assess present ADL status. The assessed ADL could predict the future risk of adverse conditions related to falls.
authors: School of Health Sciences, Niigata University of Health and Welfare, 1398 Shimami-machi, Niigata, 950-3198, Japan, okamura@nuhw.ac.jp
authors: Taro
authors: T
authors: Okamura
authors: Naohito
authors: N
authors: Tanabe
authors: Kunihiko
authors: K
authors: Shinoda
authors: Nao
authors: N
authors: Seki
authors: Isamu
authors: I
authors: Konishi
authors: Akiko
authors: A
authors: Takeshita
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Suzuki