Functional assessment in older people

Older people often present to healthcare services with acute and chronic problems that act together to adversely affect function. A common pathway comprises functional decline, followed by loss of independence and need for institutional care. However, this process is not necessarily inevitable or irreversible. Timely recognition of functional difficulties can lead to interventions that may prevent or arrest the decline. This article focuses on the functional assessment of older adults by generalist clinicians (see box 1 for terminology used in this broad field).