Physical self-maintenance, mental status, and personality in institutionalized elderly adults

Administered the projective Hand Test (HT) to 52 institutionalized elderly adults in order to establish its validity in measuring individual differences in relationships between mental status and physical self-maintenance ability. Results suggested substantial covariance among level of self-care, organic dysfunction, and personality, independent of length of institutionalization. Implications of these data for the functional assessment of institutionalized older adults are discussed.