Assessing the functional disability of rural elderly population from North-West India using activity of daily living scale: A cross-sectional survey

Background: Aging is associated with both physical impairment and functional disability. One of the areas of concerns is a derangement in the activities of daily living (ADL) where the elderly people are unable to perform their basic personal care tasks. The present study was planned with the aim to evaluate functional impairment among rural elderly using ADL scale. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional population-based survey using multistage randomized sampling technique from August 2015 to October 2015 in Miran Sahib Health Zone of R S Pura health block in Jammu District in North-West India. The study involved 418 elderly individuals above 60 years of age. Results: A higher proportion of elderly (378/418; 90.43%) were classified as functionally independent. Among the study participants 9.54% (40/418) were found to have some had some impairment. Among the elderly impaired individuals, 5.26% (22/418) were moderately impaired while 2.64% (11/418) were severely impaired. However, importantly only a small proportion (7/418; 1.67%) of elderly individuals was completely dependent on others. Conclusion: The total impairment prevalence reported among the geriatrics in the current study was 9.5%. With the increase in the geriatric population expected in near future, this number will be significant. Policies with a clear focus on geriatric health-care need to be developed to reduce the dependency among elderly.