Patterns of loss of basic activities of daily living in Alzheimer patients: A cross-sectional study of the French REAL cohort.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To characterize loss of basic activities of daily living (BADL) in 687 Alzheimer's disease (AD) community-dwelling patients included in the French REAL cohort.

METHODS

Patients had mild to moderately severe AD, and the mean age was 77.8 years. Patterns of loss of the 6 BADL were described at inclusion using the Lawton scale.

RESULTS

With 6 binary BADL scores, each patient presented at inclusion a set of losses. For 53% of women, the sets of losses were included within each other or were identical, adding losses in physical ambulation, grooming, bathing, dressing, toilet and feeding, respectively. For 47% of men, a similar sequence was identified, with loss of dressing occurring secondly. A global cohesion of sets of losses was found for 87% of women and 86% of men. The Lawton scale is very useful for the assessment of AD patients.