Effectiveness of daily living abilities (DLA) as a tool for evaluating vocational competencies: study of non-disabled workers aged 45 and over.

A questionnaire survey was conducted on 28-55 items of daily living abilities (DLA) linked to 13 basic vocational competencies such as memory, learning, planning, judgement, muscular power and concentration covering a total of 505 non-disabled blue collar male workers aged 45 and over. Results of the survey were as follows, (1) The 457 subjects were grouped into five groups ranging from normal to unsound groups according to the degree of DLA; (2) The reduction of DLA has directionality to two factors, memory and muscular power; (3) DLA provide clues for aging; (4) Among basic vocational competencies, muscular power showed the highest performance with a small standard deviation, while concentration scored low points with a large standard deviation (p < .05); (5) No age difference was found in planning ability, coordination, muscular power, physical tolerance, manual dexterity, and sense of equilibrium, while subjects aged 65 or over showed significantly low figures for learning ability, agility and concentration (p < .05); Since the findings showed various characteristics of vocational competencies and the aging process precisely in blue collar workers aged 45 and over, we assumed that the DLA survey is one of the alternatives for evaluating workers vocational competencies.