Facyorial structure and establishment of a test battery to evaluate ability of daily living activity in the elderly

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to investigate the factorial structure and to establish a test battery for evaluating ability of daily living activity in the elderly. The subjects were 252 Korean elderly women, aged 60 to 94 years. First of all, questionnaire was applied to clarify the areas of activities of daily living in the elderly. Factor analysis with Normal Varimax criterion was applied to the data and the factors extracted were interpreted as locomotion of whole body, manipulation of upper limb, manipulation of finger, and change of posture. For the second place, the twenty four performance tests related to the areas of activities of daily living were selected. Factor analysis was applied to the 24×24 correlation matrix and the factors were rotated with Normal Varimax criterion. Ability of daily living activity consisted of coordination of whole body, coordination of upper limb and finger, agility, flexibility, muscular strength of upper limb. muscular strength of lower limb,balance, and speed of upper limb reaction. Test items included in the test battery were selected from a viewpoint of validity, reliability and decremental trend of each variable with aging. The following eight items are recommended as the test items for evaluating ability of daily living activity. The developed equation to determine ability of daily living activity score (ADLAS) was ADLAS=-1.02x_1+0.396x_2-0.434x_3-0.151x_4+0.189x_5-0.0111x_6-0.0156x_7-0.0198x_8+86.22;where x_1=walking with use of chair, x_2=trunk flexion, x_3=leg muscle endurance, x_4=stepping, x_5=grip strength, x_6=foot balance with eyes open, x_7=bar grip reaction, and x_8=hand working with pegboard. The equation of ADLAS was considered useful for evaluating ability of daily living activity in the elderly.