ADL abilities and vocational competencies: Blue-collar workers aged 45 years and over.

A questionnaire composed of 55 items that addressed activities of daily living (ADL) abilities and 13 basic vocational competencies, such as memory and muscular power, was completed by 48 nondisabled male workers aged ≥45 years. The workers were all engaged in the manufacturing industry. All respondents found the following five tasks easy to do: wring a towel, put arms through sleeves, open and shut a door, turn a tap on and off, and open and shut a sliding door. Among basic vocational competencies, the highest performance, with but a small standard deviation, occurred with the muscular power competency; a low performance with a large standard deviation (P=0.05) occurred with concentration. No age difference was discerned in planning ability, cooperativeness, muscular power, staying power, manual adeptness, and sense of equilibrium, whereas in learning ability, agility, and concentration, people aged ≥65 years showed significantly lower performance (P=0.05). The characteristics of vocational competencies in manufacturing industry workers aged ≥45 years were fond to be linked to ADL abilities, and the effectiveness of the ADL abilities survey, prepared on an experimental basis, was confirmed for the evaluation of vocational competencies.