Demographics included age, sex, and race (white, black or African American, and other).
ADL stages reflect patterns of self- or proxy-reported difficulties in eating, using the toilet (including getting to the toilet), dressing, transferring (getting in and out of bed and chairs), walking in the home, and bathing. Each ADL has four levels: no difficulty (0), some difficulty (1), a lot of difficulty (2), and unable (3).6 Previous confirmatory factor analyses of a core set of 20 activities validated these six activities as a distinct ADL concept, distinguished from basic mobility and the instrumental activities of daily living.28 (link) ADL stages were developed by observing patterns of item responses in the LOSA II baseline data using methods described previously8 (link) to express sequences of known relative item difficulty, reflective of the index of ADLs and other measures.7 (link),8 (link),29 (link)
Stages 0 through IV indicate groups of people with increasing difficulties with ADLs (Table 1 ). People are staged according to responses to the simple questions shown. People at Stage 0 experience no ADL difficulties. At Stage I or II, the person (or close proxy) must report no more than the defined threshold amounts of difficulty performing each ADL. Individuals at Stage III describe less severe limitations than a Stage IV, but fall below the thresholds necessary for Stage II assignment. At Stage IV, individuals are unable to perform any ADLs. The empirically derived threshold definitions across increasingly severe ADL stages follow the well-established functional hierarchy documented in the literature.7 (link),8 (link),29 (link)
Information about cardiopulmonary disorders (heart attack, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, other heart disease, bronchitis, emphysema, or asthma), stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, arthritis, hypertension, and cancer were captured by asking respondents whether a doctor had ever told the SPs that they had the condition. SPs were considered to have history of a major mental illness if, during the past 12 months, they had schizophrenia, paranoid disorder, bipolar disorder, or major depression lasting 2 or more weeks. An individual was considered to have serious dementia if survey information was reported by proxy because of poor memory or Alzheimer's disease. Each type of condition formed a separate variable.
Respondents reported global perceived health status as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor.
Perceived home inaccessibility was reported as the respondent's perception of unmet needs for one or more accessibility features in their homes, including widened doorways, ramps, kitchen modifications, railings, easy-open doors, accessible parking or drop-off sites, elevators or stair glides, alerting devices, or other special features.
ADL stages reflect patterns of self- or proxy-reported difficulties in eating, using the toilet (including getting to the toilet), dressing, transferring (getting in and out of bed and chairs), walking in the home, and bathing. Each ADL has four levels: no difficulty (0), some difficulty (1), a lot of difficulty (2), and unable (3).6 Previous confirmatory factor analyses of a core set of 20 activities validated these six activities as a distinct ADL concept, distinguished from basic mobility and the instrumental activities of daily living.28 (link) ADL stages were developed by observing patterns of item responses in the LOSA II baseline data using methods described previously8 (link) to express sequences of known relative item difficulty, reflective of the index of ADLs and other measures.7 (link),8 (link),29 (link)
Stages 0 through IV indicate groups of people with increasing difficulties with ADLs (
Information about cardiopulmonary disorders (heart attack, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, other heart disease, bronchitis, emphysema, or asthma), stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, arthritis, hypertension, and cancer were captured by asking respondents whether a doctor had ever told the SPs that they had the condition. SPs were considered to have history of a major mental illness if, during the past 12 months, they had schizophrenia, paranoid disorder, bipolar disorder, or major depression lasting 2 or more weeks. An individual was considered to have serious dementia if survey information was reported by proxy because of poor memory or Alzheimer's disease. Each type of condition formed a separate variable.
Respondents reported global perceived health status as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor.
Perceived home inaccessibility was reported as the respondent's perception of unmet needs for one or more accessibility features in their homes, including widened doorways, ramps, kitchen modifications, railings, easy-open doors, accessible parking or drop-off sites, elevators or stair glides, alerting devices, or other special features.
