[Mental and physical condition group characteristics of disabled elderly living at home and principal diseases related to them].

A survival study over a period of one thousand days from July 1985 was performed on 177 cases of disabled elderly (aged 65 and over) living in Moriguchi-city, Osaka, who were enrolled as recipients of solatia for the disabled elderly. At the start of this study, subjects or family members were questioned regarding physical and mental status, clinical history and social environment of these elderly and their family. On the basis of these findings, the level of disability of the elderly was estimated by applying scores to identify physical and mental conditions: The score on physical status, named Total Functional Capacity (TFC), is equivalent to the dependent level of ADL: mental status was scored by assessing seven typical psychiatric questions relating to dementia (Mental Status Score: (MSS]. The following findings were obtained. 1) It was confirmed that mortality probability tended to increase by degrees in proportion to lower level of independent ADL which was indicated by high scores of TFC, and a greater number of psychiatric symptoms such as often observed in the case of dementia (i.e. high scores of MSS) in either sex. 2) For males, among the major diseases precipitating disability, the proportion for stroke was about 50%. In females, disability causes were distribute into various categories of diseases, but orthopedic diseases (e.g. accident or a fracture), contributed a large proportion. The percentage of elderly who became disabled due to stroke was higher in the lower age categories for females. 3) TFC scores did not correlate with age among either sex. 4) More than 40% had more than one psychiatric symptom included in the MSS score. The proportion of elderly having any one symptom tended to increase with age for either sex, and was especially significant for females. 5) Correlation was seen between TFC and MSS for only female.