Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The prevalence of person-perceived participation restriction in community-dwelling older adults

  • Published:
Quality of Life Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective:

To estimate the prevalence, nature and distribution of person-perceived participation restriction, in community-dwelling older adults.

Method:

Population based cross-sectional postal survey of 11,055 adults aged 50 years and over in North Staffordshire, United Kingdom. Person-perceived participation restriction was measured using the Keele Assessment of Participation which covers 11 different aspects of life mapped to the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning. Four-week period prevalence was calculated for restriction in any, multiple and for each aspect separately. Prevalence estimates were calculated for the total sample, and for each age and gender stratum.

Results:

A total of 7,878 subjects responded (adjusted response – 71.3%). The 4-week period prevalence of any participation restriction was 51.8%; 3.3% had substantial restriction. Participation restriction increased with age (p<0.001) and, for moderate and substantial restriction, was more frequent in women. The prevalence of restricted participation in individual aspects of life ranged from 3.8% (work) to 25.9% (mobility outside the home).

Conclusion:

Some restriction of participation ‚as and when we want it’ is common in the general population and increases with age, although severe restriction only affects a minority. The distribution of person-perceived participation restriction is similar to that of impairments and activity limitation in community-dwelling older adults.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Robine JM, Jagger C, Mathers CD, Crimmins EM, Suzman RM, Peron Y. Introduction. In: Robine JM,␣Jagger C, Mathers CD, Crimmins EM, Suzman RM (eds), Determining Health Expectancies. Chichester: John Wiley and sons, 2003

  2. World Health Organization. (2001). International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. World Health Organization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  3. Harwood RH, Jitapunkul S, Dickinson E, Ebrahim S. (1994). Measuring handicap: Motives, methods, and a model. Qual Health Care 3:53–57

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Harwood RH, Prince M, Mann A, Ebrahim S. (1998). Associations between diagnoses, impairments, disability and handicap in a population of elderly people. Int J Epidemiol 27:261–268

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Moore EG, Rosenberg MW, Fitzgibbon SH. (1999). Activity limitation and chronic conditions in Canada’s elderly, 1986–2011. Disabil Rehabil 21:196–210

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Martin J, Meltzer H, Elliot D. (1987). OPCS Surveys of Disability in Great Britain: The Prevalence of Disability Among Adults. OPCS, HMSO, London

    Google Scholar 

  7. Beckett LA, Brock DB, Lemke JH, Mendes de Leon CF, Guralnik JM, Fillenbaum GG, Branch LG, Wetle TT, Evans DA. (1996). Analysis of change in self-reported physical function among older persons in four population studies. Am J Epidemiol 143:766–778

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ferrucci L, Penninx BW, Leveille SG, Corti MC, Pahor M, Wallace R, Harris TB, Havlik RJ, Guralnik JM. (2000). Characteristics of non-disabled older persons who perform poorly in objective tests of lower extremity function. J Am Geriatr Soc 48:1102–1110

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Badley EM, Tennant A. (1993). Impact of disablement due to rheumatic disorders in a British population: Estimates of severity and prevalence from the Calderdale Rheumatic Disablement Survey. Ann Rheum Dis 52:6–13

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Bebbington AC, Darton RA. (1996). Healthy life expectancy in England and Wales: Recent evidence. PSSRU, London

    Google Scholar 

  11. Cousins C, Jenkins J, Laux R. Disability data from the Labour Force Survey: Comparing 1997–1998 with the past. In: Office for National Statistics. Labour Market Trends (June edition). HMSO: London, 1998

  12. Fried LP, Bandeen-Roche K, Kasper JD, Guralnik JM. (1999). Association of comorbidity with disability in older women: The Women’s Health and Aging Study. J Clin Epidemiol 52:27–37

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Harwood RH, Prince MJ, Mann AH, Ebrahim S. (1998). The prevalence of diagnoses, impairments, disabilities and handicaps in a population of elderly people living in a defined geographical area: the Gospel Oak project. Age Ageing 2:707–714

    Google Scholar 

  14. Schwartz CE, Rapkin BD. (2004). Reconsidering the psychometrics of quality of life assessment in light of response shift and appraisal. Health Qual Life Outcomes 2:14

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Carr AJ, Gibson B, Robinson PG. (2001). Measuring quality of life: Is quality of life determined by expectations or experience? Br Med J 322:1240–1243

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Doherty M. (2001). Risk factors for progression of knee osteoarthritis. Lancet 358:775–776

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Freedman VA, Martin LG. (1998). Understanding trends in functional limitations among older Americans. Am J Public Health 88:1457–1462

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Thomas E, Wilkie R, Peat G, Hill S, Dziedzic KS, Croft PR. (2004). The epidemiology and management of clinical osteoarthritis in the older population: Prospective 3-year study of natural history and health care utilisation in the general population. BMC Musculoskel Disorders 5(1):2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Trinder P. South Stoke Primary Care Trust. Demography and Deprivation Profile. Directorate of Health Policy and Public Health, North Staffordshire Health, 2002 http://www.nsha.co.uk/home/library/hp/hp

  20. Trinder P. Newcastle-under-Lyme Primary Care Trust. Demography and Deprivation Profile. Directorate of Health Policy and Public Health, North Staffordshire Health, 2002 http://www.nsha.co.uk/home/library/hp/hp

  21. Ware J Jr, Kosinski M, Keller SD. (1996). A 12-item short-form health survey: Construction of scales and preliminary tests of reliability and validity. Med Care 34:220–233

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Wilkie R, Peat GM, Thomas E, Hooper H, Croft PR. (2005). The Keele assessment of participation: A new instrument to measure participation restriction in population studies. Combined qualitative and quantitative examination of its psychometric properties. Qual Life Res 14(8):1889–1899

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Bland M. (1995). An Introduction to Medical Statistics 2nd edn. Oxford Medical Publications, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  24. Office for National Statistics. (2002). Health Quarterly 20. Office for National Statistics, London

    Google Scholar 

  25. Pettit T, Livingston G, Manela M, Kitchen G, Katona C, Bowling A. (2001). Validation and normative data of health status measures in older people: The Islington study. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 16:1061–1070

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Thomas E, Peat G, Harris L, Wilkie R, Croft PR. (2004). The prevalence of pain and pain interference in a general population of older adults: Cross-sectional findings from the North Staffordshire Osteoarthritis Project (NorStOP). Pain 110:361–368

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Ueda S, Okawa Y. (2003). The subjective dimension of functioning and disability: What is it and what is it for? Disabil Rehabil 25:596–601

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Leveille SG, Penninx BW, Melzer D, Izmirlian G, Guralinik JM. (2000). Sex differences in the prevalence of mobility disability in old age: The dynamics of incidence, recovery, and mortality. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 55:S41–50

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Odding E, Valkenburg HA, Stam HJ, Hofman A. (2002). Determinants of locomotor disability in people aged 55 years and over: The Rotterdam study. Eur J Epidemiol 17:1033–1041

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Papageourgiou AC, Croft PR, Ferry S, Jayson MI, Silman AJ. (1995). Estimating the prevalence of low back pain in the general population. Evidence from the South Manchester Back Pain Survey. Spine 20:1889–1894

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Harwood RH, Rogers A, Dickinson E, Ebrahim S. (1994b). Measuring handicap: The London Handicap Scale, a new outcome measure for chronic disease. Qual Health Care 3:11–16

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study is supported financially by a Programme Grant awarded by the Medical Research Council, UK (Grant code: G9900220) and by funding secured from the North Staffordshire Primary Care R&D Consortium for NHS service support costs. The authors would like to thank the administrative and health informatics staff at Keele University’s Primary Care Sciences Research Centre. We would also like to thank the doctors, staff and patients of the participating general practices and Professor Carol Jagger for her helpful comments on the drafting of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Primary Care Sciences Research Centre, Keele Universtity, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, United Kingdom

    Ross Wilkie, George Peat, Elaine Thomas & Peter Croft

Authors
  1. Ross Wilkie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. George Peat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Elaine Thomas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Peter Croft
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ross Wilkie.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wilkie, R., Peat, G., Thomas, E. et al. The prevalence of person-perceived participation restriction in community-dwelling older adults. Qual Life Res 15, 1471–1479 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-006-0017-9

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-006-0017-9

Key words

Search

Navigation