RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To find functional capacity of elderly patients by using the Katz Index, which measures the "Basic Activities of Daily Life". To examine how reliable the Katz Index is in the Primary Care field. DESIGN: Descriptive crossover study. Assessment of the measuring instrument's internal consistency and reliability, using a test-retest method. SITE. Otero Health Area, in Oviedo. PATIENTS OR OTHERS PARTICIPANTS: This was a random sample, ordered by age and gender, of people over 65 who used the Otero Health centre. MAIN MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The elderly population made up 12.86% of our base Health Area. The Katz Index showed that 81.6% of the elderly in the sample were independent in all their functions. A significant age difference was found. Internal consistency was measured by Cronbach's Alpha and was 0.8612 for nurses and 0.8362 for doctors. The correlation coefficient within Sperman's estimated observer was r = 0.936074. Kappa was 0.8436 (p < 0.0000) for the different observers, i.e. nurses or doctors. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the elderly patients in our base Health area possess full functional capacity, at the level of the routine activities of their daily life. The Katz Index is a reliable method of evaluating elderly peoples' functional capacity, at the Primary Care level. It can be used by any professional in the health team.
