Association between muscle power impairment and WHODAS 2.0 in older adults with physical disability in Taiwan.

Purpose: To explore the association between muscle power impairment and each World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule second edition (WHODAS 2.0) domain score among subjects with physical disability.

Methods: Subjects (≥ 60 years) with physical disability related to neurological diseases, including 730 subjects with brain disease (BD) and 126 subjects with non-BD, were enrolled from a data bank of persons with disabilities from 1 July 2011 to 29 February 2012. Standardized WHODAS 2.0 scores ranging from 0 (least difficulty) to 100 (greatest difficulty) points were calculated for each domain.

Results: More than 50% of subjects with physical disability had the greatest difficulty in household activities and mobility. Muscle power impairment (adjusted odds ratios range among domains, 2.75-376.42, p < 0.001), age (1.38-4.81, p < 0.05), and speech impairment (1.94-5.80, p < 0.05) were associated with BD subjects experiencing the greatest difficulty in most WHODAS 2.0 domains. But a few associated factors were identified for the non-BD group in the study.

Conclusions: Although the patterns of difficulty in most daily activities were similar between the BD and non-BD groups, factors associated with the difficulties differed between those two groups. Muscle power impairment, age and speech impairment were important factors associated with difficulties in subjects with BD-related physical disability.

Implications For Rehabilitation: Older adults with physical disability often experience difficulties in household activities and mobility. Muscle power impairment is associated with difficulties in daily life in subjects with physical disability related to brain disease. Those subjects with brain disease who had older age, a greater degree of muscle power impairment, and the presence of speech impairment were at higher risk of experiencing difficulties in most daily activities.