BACKGROUND Few have studied how personal activities of daily living (P-ADL) develop over time in nursing home residents with dementia. Thus, the aim was to study variables associated with the development of P-ADL functioning over a 52-month follow-up period, with a particular focus on the importance of the degree of dementia. METHOD In all, 932 nursing home residents with dementia (Clinical D...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to compare independent impacts of two levels of self-reported hearing and vision impairment on subsequent disability, physical functioning, mental health, and social functioning. DESIGN A 1-year prospective cohort study. SETTING San Francisco Bay Area, California. PARTICIPANTS Two thousand four hundred forty-two community-dwelling men and women age...

On average, older people remember less and walk more slowly than do younger persons. Some researchers argue that this is due in part to a common biologic process underlying age-related declines in both physical and cognitive functioning. Only recently have longitudinal data become available for analyzing this claim. We conducted a systematic review of English-language research published between...

OBJECTIVE To examine the comparative prevalence and distribution of obesity and psychological disturbance in the asthma and non-asthma populations, and to determine how these comorbidities are associated with physical functioning. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A South Australian population-representative study of 3175 adults who provided data on asthma, psychological morbidity, physical fu...

The study reports on the associations of infant and childhood anthropometric measurements, early growth, and the combined effect of birth weight and childhood body mass index with older age physical functioning among 1,999 individuals born in 1934-1944 and belonging to the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study. Physical functioning was assessed by the Short Form 36 scale. Anthropometric data from infancy...

OBJECTIVES Prior studies of age-restricted samples have demonstrated that, in older adulthood, neuroticism is negatively associated with difficulties performing specific daily activities. No studies of neuroticism and physical functioning have been conducted on life-span samples. This study tested the hypothesis that the relationship between neuroticism and physical functioning is stronger in o...

BACKGROUND Lower physical and social functioning in pregnancy has been linked to an increased risk of preterm delivery and low birth weight infants, butt few studies have examined racial differences in pregnant women's perception of their functioning. Even fewer studies have elucidated the demographic and clinical factors contributing to racial differences in functioning. Our objective was to d...

The study reports on the associations of infant and childhood anthropometric measurements, early growth, and the combined effect of birth weight and childhood body mass index with older age physical functioning among 1,999 individuals born in 1934–1944 and belonging to the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study. Physical functioning was assessed by the Short Form 36 scale. Anthropometric data from infancy...