Preliminary Findings of the Brief Everyday Activities Measurement (BEAM) in Older Adults.
OBJECTIVE
Functional losses are common in healthy and cognitively impaired older adults. However, subtle declines in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) are not always detected in self-reports. Performance IADL measurements are financially and time burdensome, restricting their use in varied settings. To address these limitations, we developed the Brief Everyday Activities Measure (BEAM), a short (< 5 minutes) objective IADL measure that assesses medication and finance management.


METHODS
The BEAM was administered to 209 cognitively non-demented community-dwellers (ages 65 - 95 years).


METHODS
Participants completed standardized motor, neuropsychological, psychological, and self-report functional assessments.


RESULTS
BEAM completion time ranged from 54.16 to 259.31 seconds. Interclass correlations (ICC) for total BEAM completion time was moderate (0.65, 95% CI [.43 -.78]). Accuracy for total BEAM performance was in the low-moderate range (Kappa = 0.38, p < .001, 95% CI [.18 -.54]). As predicted, lower accuracy and longer time to complete the BEAM were both associated with worse executive functions, attention, and processing speed.


CONCLUSIONS
Medication and finance management can be efficiently assessed within five minutes. The BEAM may be a valuable screening tool to evaluate these functional abilities.
Roee Holtzer, Ph.D. Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology and Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, NY, USA. Phone: 718 430-3962; Fax: 718 430-3960; email: roee.holtzer@einstein.yu.edu.
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D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005376:Financial Management; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012646:Self Administration