Research corner: Relationship of severity of physical disability to pain, functional status, and assistive device use of home- based elderly clients

This study sought to determine the relationship of assistive device use, pain, and functional status to severity of physical disability among elderly persons with disabilities. A total of 194 community-based elderly persons were divided into seven groups based on degree of physical disability derived from their Sickness Impact Profile scores. Dependent measures included the functional independence measure (FIM) for activities of daily living (ADLs), the Jette Functional Status Index-Modified for pain, and the Assistive Technology Used Survey for use of assistive devices. A Kruskall-Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was computed for each dependent variable. The seven groups showed statistically significant differences (P <.05) in reported pain scores, in functional status as determined by performance on ADL tasks, and in use of assistive devices. The results indicate that the use of assistive devices by elderly persons living in the community is associated with an interaction of several variables that are strongly related to degree of severity of physical disability.