Frequency of daily living activities in older adults and their relationship with sociodemographic characteristics: A survey-based study.

BACKGROUND

Activities in daily living (ADL) are the fundamental actions people must take to survive, care of themselves, and integrate into their daily environment.

OBJECTIVE

This study has two objectives: 1) to offer a new questionnaire to assess daily living activities frequency and report evidence of their psychometric properties, and 2) to describe how often older adults in a region of Chile perform different types of daily living activities and to identify their relationship with their sociodemographic characteristics.

METHOD

399 older adults from the Biobío Region, Chile, chosen by quota sampling, were surveyed. They answered the DAF and a sociodemographic questionnaire, after giving their informed consent. For the data analysis, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed and its reliability was assessed using McDonald's Omega. The relationship with the sociodemographic variables was evaluated using non-parametric bivariate statistics.

RESULTS

The results of the CFA showed an acceptable fit of the data to the eight-factor model: χ/df = 4.188, CFI >0.915, TLI >0.903, RMSEA <0.089 (0.085-0.094) and SRMR <0.104. Their reliability fluctuated between ω = 0.546 and ω = 0.934. Specific relationships of some DAF factors were found with gender, age, educational level, income, jobs, children, participation in clubs, and perception of health (p < 0.05).

DISCUSSION

The results support the validity and reliability of the DAF. Older adults spend more time on personal care or household care activities, and less time on social activities, taking care of their health, or caring for others. The time they dedicate to these activities is associated with the sociodemographic profile of older adults, where there is an important weight of gender and age, and where a greater social capital of older adults helps them maintain a more stimulating life.