The Latin American Development Group for Maturity (GDLAM) protocol has been widely used to assess functional autonomy (FA) in community-dwelling older adults. However, to date, no percentile-based rating scale has been established for older Chilean women living in the community. The aim was to create a percentile-based rating scale for the GDLAM protocol in community-dwelling older Chilean women. 347 older women volunteered for this study. The sample was divided into five groups by age ranges (G1: 60.0–64.9 years, G2: 65.0–69.9 years, G3: 70.0–74.9 years, G4: 75.0–79.9 years, and G5: ≥80.0 years). The research had an observational, cross-sectional design with a descriptive strategy. The GDLAM protocol included (a) Putting on and taking off a T-shirt (PTS), (b) Standing up from the sitting position (SSP), (c) Standing up from the prone position (SPP), (d) Walking 10 m (W10 m), and (e) Sit-ting and getting up from the chair and moving around the house (SCMA), all assessed in seconds (s), while the General Index of Autonomy (GI) was calculated in points (p). The percentile-based classification was developed with the following thresholds: percentile ≤ 0.15: “Very Good,” percentile 0.16–0.49: “Good,” percentile 0.50–084: “Regular,” and percentile ≥ 0.85: “Poor.” After creating the percentile-based ranking scale for the five age ranges, it was observed that the older the age, the lower the FA, as represented by the five tests and the GI. The percentile-based ranking scale presented in this research will enable us to accurately assess and interpret the FA of older and community-dwelling women in Chile. However, the study is limited to women and cannot be generalized to older adults in general.
Ojeda et al. (Mon,) studied this question.