Abstract

Quality of life in later years depends to a large degree on the ability to function independently which in other words means to have a capacity to perform daily tasks without pain, undue fatigue and for as long as needed. The necessity, from the point of view of every individual as well as of society as whole, is that the adequate functional status in old age should be emphasized and maintained. In order to positively affect functional ability we need to know how to accurately measure this construct. Therefore the evaluation of physical functioning or functional status becomes a key issue in aging research and clinical gerontology. In past few decades many instruments that were standardized to measure physical functioning among older adults have been developed. Each of them has certain advantages and disadvantages. This paper was conducted to review and organize available methods of evaluation of physical functioning appropriate for older adults in order to provide the knowledge on selection of the most commonly used instruments. A special attention was paid to performance-based measures and the review was restricted to the measures of functional status solely. Verf.-Referat