JSNA 2009 4.13.4 Unable to manage at least one domestic task on their own
Summary
Maintaining skills and abilities are important to both support independence and promote good health.
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Related Projects
- JSNA 2009 - 4. Health & Social Care Need
- JSNA 2009 Older People's Theme
- JSNA 2009 Physical and Sensory Impairment Theme
About This Document | |
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| Description | Activities such as carrying shopping or cleaning windows, are important because they constitute moderate intensity activity. Such activities when performed on a regular basis have been associated with the control and prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension, non-insulin dependant diabetes mellitus, obesity and improved mental health. In addition, physical activity may reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis, while some of the activities studied improve muscle strength and so reduce the risk of falls and fractures. In national studies, 40% of elderly people (48% of women and 28% of men) were unable to perform at least one of the activities on their own. As with carrying out self-care tasks, whether a person could perform a domestic task was related to age. The proportion of people who were unable to perform a least one of the domestic activities studied rose from 23% among people aged between 65 to 69, to 77% among those aged 85 and over. Jobs involving climbing caused the most difficulty for the elderly; just under a third of elderly people (31%) were unable to perform this task by themselves. Other domestic tasks causing difficulties for the elderly were: • Practical activities, such as gardening, decorating or doing household repairs (28% of elderly people were unable to perform these tasks by themselves). • Cleaning windows inside (19% of elderly people were unable to clean windows by themselves). • Household shopping (13% of elderly people were unable to do household shopping by themselves). • Opening screw tops (12% of elderly people were unable to open screw tops by themselves). • Using a vacuum cleaner (11% of elderly people were unable to use a vacuum cleaner by themselves). Nearly half of elderly people living alone reported difficulty with at least one of the domestic activities studied (49%). Since many of the activities listed need to be performed on a regular basis, the need for outside help in undertaking these activities must arise with some regularity. In addition, several activities form part of the definition of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and are essential to independent living. The tasks elderly people living alone were most likely to be unable to manage by themselves were: • Practical activities (38% were unable to carry out practical activities by themselves). • Jobs involving climbing (38% were unable to manage jobs involving climbing by themselves). • Cleaning windows inside (24% were unable to manage cleaning windows by themselves). • Household shopping (16% were unable to manage household shopping by themselves). • Using a vacuum cleaner (13% were unable to manage using a vacuum cleaner by themselves). |
| Subject & Keywords | physical disability |
