The prevalence of functional disability in activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living among elderly Beijing Chinese

In order to assess the prevalence of the functional disability defined by a ctivity of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activity of daily living (IA DL) and associated factors in elderly Chinese, a population-based cross-sec tional study was performed in urban, plain rural and mountain rural regions of Beijing. Of the 3440 subjects, 1707 are males and 1733 are females, wit h mean age of 71.4 +/- 7.7 years. Demographic, socio-economic and health as pects were obtained by trained interviewers. The results showed functional disability prevalence was 6.5% on ADL and 7.9% on IADL. Among the three rep resentative areas in Beijing, the plain rural had the highest disability ra te, increasing with the progression of age. Bathing and doing heavy housewo rk were the two most difficult functional tasks. The functional disabilitie s were associated with gender and marital status. Our data suggest that pla in rural elderly are most likely to generate functional disability, and bat hing and doing heavy housework are two promising predictors to monitor the development of functional disability in the elderly. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.