Almost 42% of adults over 65 years of age live with at least one disability. Further, people of lower socioeconomic status and Blacks have greater risks for disability than Whites and individuals at higher socioeconomic status. The consequences of disability include loss of independence, decreased quality of life, increased chances of depression, consumption of health care services, and institutionalization. The purpose of this study was to utilize the disablement process framework to examine the contribution of physical function, dyspnea, and pain to disability in activities-of-daily-living (ADL) in culturally diverse older adults (i.e., diverse according to race, income, and education). Participants were 51 older adults (M age = 60.0 years, SD = 9.7) from an urban community center and an independent living housing facility for seniors with fixed incomes who completed the Functional Status Index (FSI), which provides ratings of need for assistance (FSIA) and pain (FSIP) with ADLs, the Continuous Scale Physical Functional Performance 10-item Test (CS-PFP10), and an analog dyspnea scale. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that CS-PFP10 scores alone account for approximately 21% and 30% of the variance in FSIA scores of the participants from the community center and the housing facility, respectively. Adding FSIP and dyspnea ratings to the prediction model results in explaining an even higher portion of the variance in FSIA scores (36% in the community center and 53% in the housing facility). Based on this model, functional capacity improvement and pain and dyspnea prevention and management should be targeted when designing culturally appropriate strategies for delaying disability and maintaining independent life.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-07112007-080524 |
| Date | 11 July 2007 |
| Creators | Holton, Fernanda |
| Contributors | Rebecca Ellis, Maria Kosma, Katie Cherry |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07112007-080524/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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