Objective: To establish the grade of functional deterioration in older people and analyse associated factors.
Design: Cross sectional study.
Setting: City of Córdoba.
Participants: The population over 60 years old on the Córdoba municipal roll (49,674) and living at home, from which a sample of 1,103 subjects was taken.
Interventions: The multidimensional OARS-MFAQ questionnaire was filled in. Calculation of the functional deterioration scores enabled five areas to be evaluated: physical health (PH), mental health (MH), economic resources (ER), social resources (SR) and capacity to perform daily activities (DA) autonomously.
Measurements and main results: Reply rate was 86.8%. The prevalence of serious/absolute deterioration in each of the areas was: 9.3% in SR, 8.5% in DA, 8.4% in ER, 6.9% in MH and 5.8% in PH.
Conclusions: Both the prevalence of functional deterioration in the population group under study and the demand for institutional care are similar to other studies performed in our country, but higher than in Anglosaxon countries.