Functional status and self-rated health in 2,262 nonagenarians: The danish 1905 cohort survey

RESULTS: According to the five-item ADL scale, 50% of the men and 41% of the women were categorized as not disabled, while 19% and 22%, respectively, were categorized as severely disabled. The five-item ADL scale correlated highly with the 26-item ADL scale ( r 5 0.83). The ADL scales showed moderate-to-good correlation with each other ( r 5 0.74‐0.83), and with the physical performance tests ( r 5 0.31‐0.58). Only 3.7% of the women and 6.3% of the men walked (normal pace) with a speed of at least 1 meter per second, which is the minimum walking speed required to cross signaled intersections in Denmark. A total of 56% considered their health to be excellent or good. Of the participants, 74% were always or almost always satisfied with their lives, even though only 45% reported that they “felt well enough to do what they wanted.” The analyses showed that no single ADL item seemed to be of particular importance for how the participants rated their health. CONCLUSION: The Danish 1905 cohort survey is the largest and the only nationwide survey of a whole birthcohort of nonagenarians. A total of 2,262 fairly nonselected nonagenarians participated. The level of both selfreported disability and functional limitations measured by physical performance tests among nonagenarians was high. Despite their lower mortality, women were more disabled than men and did not perform as well as men in the physical performance tests. Nevertheless, the majority of the participants considered their health to be good and were satisfied with their lives. J Am Geriatr Soc 49:601‐ 609, 2001.