Cognitive abilities and functional capacity in older adults: results from the modified Scales of Independent Behavior–Revised

Abstract

The relationship between cognitive and functional abilities was examined in a sample of community-dwelling older adults. Self and informant (e.g., spouse) reports of participants’ functional status were obtained on the modified Scales of Independent Behavior–Revised (mSIB-R). Participants also completed measures of processing speed, episodic memory, executive functioning, and verbal ability. Results showed that the mSIB-R correlated positively with cognitive variables. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested that each mSIB-R factor is predicted by somewhat different cognitive variables, after adjusting for demographic, health, and motor variables. This report-based measure was as accurate as a performance-based measure in classifying cognitive groups. Informant social/cognitive engagement and self physical/environment engagement factors showed the most promise in this regard. The findings reveal links between cognitive and functional abilities in a sample with varying degrees of cognitive impairment.

Keywords:

• Functional status
• cognitive abilities
• modified scales of independent behavior

Acknowledgments

Jing Ee Tan, David F. Hultsch, and Esther Strauss are affiliated with the Department of Psychology at the University of Victoria.

Project MIND was supported by grants from Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and the Alzheimer Society of Canada. A portion of the study was presented at the annual meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Portland, OR, in February, 2007.

Notes

¹ Data on all 445 participants of the normative sample were available for the measures of perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, verbal fluency, and vocabulary, but due the use of a counterbalancing procedure, information on the episodic memory task was only available for 194 of the 445 participants. Individuals participating in the longitudinal study from which the normative sample was drawn were not accepted into the current sample.