[Survey of activities of daily living in non-institutionalized elderly residents]

To investigate the states of activities of daily living (ADLs) in the elderly, non-institutionalized residents-aged 65 and over living in Azuchi (population of approximately 12,000) were interviewed. Data was collected from 1,287 subjects (509 men and 778 women; 92.1%) for the 3 years, 1990 to 1992. Differences in difficulties with the 6 basic ADLs (BADLs) and the 7 instrumental ADLs (IADLs) were analyzed according to gender and age. For the BADLs (eating, dressing, bathing, using the toilet, mobility, and incontinence), only the percentage of incontinence was significantly higher in women than in men (p < 0.01). The percentage of those fully independent in the 6 BADLs in men was 87%, which was higher than that in women (77%), but except for incontinence there were no significant differences between the sexes. The percentages of disability in the BADLs for women and for both sexes combined were higher according to age (p < 0.01), but for men, only those of dressing (p < 0.05) and of incontinence (p < 0.01) were related with age. The disability percentage for cooking was the only activity among the IADLs (cooking, using the telephone, cleaning house, walking, shopping, going up and down steps, and using transportation) which was significantly higher in men (p < 0.01), but those for walking, going up and down steps, and using transportation were higher in women (p < 0.01). The percentage of those who were fully independent was 74% in both sexes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)