Use of a short-form screening procedure to detect unrecognized functional disability in the hospitalized elderly

We performed an observational cohort study to test the ability of a short-form screening procedure to detect unrecognized functional disability, as well as its capacity to predict clinical outcome. This screening procedure was administered to 198 consecutive patients within 48 hours of admission. Clinical outcomes upon discharge from the acute care hospital and at 3 months were analyzed according to the number of functional disabilities present on admission. This brief test identified a mean of 1.8 and a median of 1 previously unrecognized functional disabilities per patient. The presence of two or more functional disabilities on admission (48% of the study population) was significantly associated with a negative outcome upon discharge (relative risk = 1.73; CI, 1.33-2.25; p = 0.0001) and at 3 months after discharge (relative risk = 1.34; CI, 1.10-1.64; p = 0.003) confirming the reliability of the short-form screening procedure.