CORRELATION OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTION WITH ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING IN OLDER PEOPLE

N. Kumar.S¹, P. Gopal¹

¹Ramaiah Medical College, Department of Physiotherapy, Bangalore, India

Background: Aging in general is known to cause loss of some functions in most of the vital organs. The brain in particular is known to shrink with increasing age, particularly in frontal cortex and the sub-cortical regions.With aging, there is a dynamic interplay between factors that leads to neuro-degeneration and cognitive impairment. Recent studies suggest that with aging cognitive decline in areas of speed of information processing, cognitive flexibility and executive functions are evident in healthy older adults. Everyday functioning plays a tremendous demand on executive system in order for an individual to conduct themselves in an efficient and appropriate manner. Real-life complex situations require organization and structuring of a goal-related behavior and therefore require a number of different cognitive resources. With aging there is loss of autonomy and independence which are major concerns of older adults along with several cognitive issues. Loss of independence in daily activities is associated with elevated risk of functional disability and also greater caregiver burden.

Purpose: Agingin general is known to cause reduction in some functions in most of the vital organs. With aging there is a dynamic interplay between factors that leads to neuro-degeneration and cognitive impairment.Cognitive decline contributes to functional decline. Executive function plays a tremendous role in complex activities. Timely assessment of executive function and early rehabilitation, may help in delaying the effects of functional disability. Thereby, empowering older adults to overcome their difficulties in performing ADLs. Hence, the need for assessing executive function to establish the effect on ADL in older adults.
To determine if there exists a correlation between executive function and ADL in older adults is crucial.

Methods: 46 subjects were recruited based on the inclusion criteria. Healthy older adults were screened for MMSE scale, participants scoring below 18 were excluded from the study. Informed consent was taken and the participants were assessed for their ADLs using the Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL) questionnaire. Further they were assessed for executive function using two scales that is Trail Making Test-B (TMT-B) and Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) scales.

Results: Spearman's correlation test was used to correlate between ADLs and executive function. Using Spearman's correlation, it is found that there is negative weak correlation and there is no significant between IADL to TMT-B. There is moderate positive correlation between IADL and FAB, and it is highly significant.FAB with p value (p 0.00) shows a better correlation with Activities of Daily living than TMT-B.

Conclusions: There is a significant correlation between Activities of daily living and executive function. FAB scale is more sensitive to evaluate Executive function than TMT-B scale.

Implications: Assessment of Executive function in older population is recommended for a better geriatric rehabilitation to improve the ADL function.
Comparison of FAB scale with any other executive function scales can be done for further understanding of executive function with Activities of Daily living in older people.

Funding acknowledgements: No funding was availed for this study

Keywords:
Older adults
Executive Function
Activities of daily living

Topics:
Older people

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore , India

Committee: Ethical Committee Ramaiah Medical College

Ethics number: MSRMC/EC/PG-05/02-2019