Abstract
The increasing population of Saudi elderly demands adequate assessment of their functional health status and mental status to improve their health and quality of life. This study aimed to determine the functional status of older Saudi people in performing basic activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and its influencing factors. This quantitative, descriptive-correlational study surveyed a total of 203 participants using the Mini-Mental State Examination, Katz Index of ADL, and Lawton IADL. Overall, the participants had moderate cognitive impairment and were able to perform basic ADLs and IADLs independently, but they needed assistance in doing housework. Functional status was sensitive to their sociodemographic characteristics, presence of health problems, and mental status. Mental status, education, employment, marital status, and source of support were significantly associated with their ability to perform basic ADLs and IADLs. This study suggests that more efforts are needed to understand the sociodemographic characteristics, presence of health problems, and mental status that support the development of evidence-based public health policy on the functional status among older Saudi people. The findings can be utilized by hospital and nursing administrators to initiate educational and training programs for healthcare professionals including nurses and to create healthcare policies so that the health concerns and functional difficulties of older patients are adequately addressed.
Highlights
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralApproximately 110 to 190 million older people experience difficulties in performing basic functions around the world, and this increasing rate of disability has been associated with the increasing incidence of chronic illnesses [1], including cancer [2,3], diabetes mellitus (DM) [4], and cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure [5], myocardial infarction and hypertension [4,6]
More than half of them had a cardiovascular health condition (51.72%), which was more common among male Saudis and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (62.07%), which was more prevalent among female Saudis
The MiniMental Status Examination (MMSE) scores of participants revealed that they had moderate cognitive impairment
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralApproximately 110 to 190 million older people experience difficulties in performing basic functions around the world, and this increasing rate of disability has been associated with the increasing incidence of chronic illnesses [1], including cancer [2,3], diabetes mellitus (DM) [4], and cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure [5], myocardial infarction and hypertension [4,6]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) [7], the number of individuals aged 60 or more will increase from 900 million in 2015 to 2 billion in 2050. The gerontological data have been receiving wide interest in global scientific inquiries, which increases the demand for baseline data. Arab adults including older Saudi people, wherein the aging population will reach its peak in 2050 [7,9,10,11]. Despite the imminent consequences of the rising population of older people in the Arab region, gerontological studies in these countries are still limited [9], with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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