Prediction of everyday task performance in older adults by perceived health, self-efficacy and cognitive ability

Abstract

While research links neuropsychological performance to everyday functioning in cognitively impaired older adults, comparatively little research has investigated this relationship in unimpaired older people. This study investigated that relationship. A total of 134 independently living adults aged 60–93 years completed Cognistat, the Direct Assessment of Functional Status (DAFS), the Personality in Intellectual-Aging Contexts and a four-item subjective health measure. Hierarchical regression was used to examine the relative ability of these measures to predict the functional domains of the DAFS, hypothesizing that the health and self-efficacy measures would be more strongly associated with DAFS scores than with the cognitive domains. Self-reported health accounted for little variance in all measures, whereas self-efficacy contributed significantly to four functional domains. The cognitive variables contributed to only two domains, with memory the most consistent predictor. The study showed that a brief cognitive measure can partially predict the functional ability of older independently living adults.

Keywords

• functional assessment
• iadls
• cognition
• older adults
• self-efficacy
• physical health