Functional measures of geriatric subjects in the community

The “aging imperative” is associated with a rising proportion of older subjects in the population and an increasing prevalence of disability. Assessment of functional status is needed to identify disability early when intervention is likely to be most effective and to monitor the effects of interventions to obtain the best outcomes. Standardized self-report assessments for elders at risk are reanalyzed in this article to produce concise linear measures from ordinal scales. This permits quantification of measurement error while apparently yielding the same clinical information in less time and with less respondent burden.