MULTIDISCIPLINARY studies of illness in aged persons. II. A new classification of functional status in activities of daily living.

I T HAS been stated, “The process of aging consists of those changes with time which result in progressive loss of abilities and in progressive increase in death rate.“’ The staff of The Benjamin Rose Hospital, a hospital for prolonged illness in Cleveland, Ohio, is making a continuing effort to establish methods for obtaining quantitative information about the progressive loss of abilities and progressive increase in death rate. As part of this effort, physical, social, and psychologic data are obtained in initial and repeated follow-up examinations made at comparable times during the course of illness of aged patients. Initial methods have been evolved in relation to a study of consecutively admitted patients with fractures of the hip occurring within 6 months prior to admission.2 The present report defines an Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living that is newly evolved and more specific than previously available. Exampbes are presented of the use of the Index of ADL as a measure of the course of illness in study patients.