Functional Disability and Their Associated Chronic Diseases among Elderly Patients Attending an Egyptian Family Practice Clinic

Background: With the enhanced life expectancy, the number of elderly persons is constantly increasing. Functional disabilities increase among elderly persons with the growing burden of chronic diseases leading to dependency and affection of performance of daily activities. Objectives: The present study was carried out to determine the prevalence of functional disabilities among elder of various chronic diseases and disabilities, and the relation between chronic diseases and disabilities. Method: The design of the present study was crosssectional. Data collection was done using a semi-structured anonymous questionnaire. SPSS program, version 24 was used for data analysis. Results: The mean age of the studied participants was 67.19±5.94 years. Seventy-three percent of the studied participants had three chronic diseases or more. Most of the respondents had diabetes mellitus (62.3%), hypertension (75.8%), musculoskeletal pain (61.3%), and eye diseases (51.7%). Concerning the prevalence of functional disability, 50.9% and 49.1% of the studied participants were independent and partially dependent, respectively. The significant predictors of functional disability were age > 75 years (odds ratio (OR): 2.06; confidence interval (CI): 1.08-3.91), very low socioeconomic status (OR): 2.64; confidence interval (CI): 2.01–4.80), and number of chronic diseases ≥ 3 (odds ratio (OR): 9.62; confidence interval (CI): 4.39-21.04). Conclusions: The present study showed a significant association between elderly chronic diseases and disabilities. Furthermore, advanced age and very low socioeconomic status were significant determinants of functional disability among the studied participants. Implementation of geriatric health programs is of vital importance for the screening of chronic diseases and disabilities identification.