dependency in daily living activities following limb trauma in the elderly

background activities of daily living (adl) are an important indicator of health and independence in the elderly. it provides useful information for proper planning in the field of elderly care. trauma in the elderly population is frequent and negatively affects the independence in adl. objectives the purpose of the present study was to evaluate elderly independence in activities of daily living (adl) following limb trauma and its related factors in patients referred to the trauma emergency ward of shahid beheshti hospital, kashan, iran, in 2013. patients and methods this descriptive study was conducted on 200 trauma patients admitted to the trauma emergency ward of shahid beheshti hospital in 2013. the questionnaire used in this study had three parts as follows: demographic data, information related to the trauma, and independency scale of activities of daily living (isadl). isadl was completed in the emergency ward to declare pretraumatic status; and was completed at 1 and 3 months after trauma. statistical analysis was conducted by chi-square test, one-way and two-factor anova, and multiple regression analysis. data analysis was conducted using spss (ver 16). results the average age of participants was 70.57 ± 9.05 years. in total, 80.5% of the elderly were completely independent in isadl before trauma. this decreased to 13.5% 1 month after trauma. additionally, 32% of the elderly were completely or relatively dependent 3 months after trauma. a two-factor anova showed a significant association between the scores of isadl, the time interval, the type and location of an injured organ, and having surgery as a part of the treatment. conclusions more than three-quarters of the elderly were independent in isadl before the trauma, but trauma in elderly patients had a substantial negative effect on patient ability and adl function.