The Functional Activities Questionnaire serves a screening tool for evaluating ADI.s independence. The instrument was intended for community studies of normal aging and moderate senile dementia.
In order to take the FAQ, a lay informant (i.e. spouse, friend, or relative) must administer it. The participant most respond to 10-items pertaining to daily tasks needed when living independently. A scale ranging from independence (0) to dependence (3) is used for responses. Approximately 10 minutes is required for completion.
Author: Robert I. Pfeffer, 1982
Reliability and Validity
The FAQ has fairly high reported correlations with other mental functioning instruments. Calculated with a study of 158 elderly people, the FAQ correlates a score of 0.72 with the Lawton and Brody’s IADL; furthermore, all of the FAQ’s correlations were above 0.70 except with the Raven’s matrices (0.41). A reported 0.97 inter-rater reliability shows excellent reliability. However, the scale shows some difficulty in differentiating between demented and non-demented people.
Obtaining the FAQ
http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/geriresource/toolbox/the_functional_activities.htm
References
Erratum. J Gen Intern Med. 1986; 1: 427.
Jette AM, Davies AR, et al. The Functional Status Questionnaire: Reliability and validity when used in primary care. J Gen Intern Med. 1986; 1: 143-149.
Karagiozis H, Gray S, Sacco J, et al. the Direct Assessment of Functional Abilites (DAFA): a comparison to an indirect measure of instrumental activities of daily living. Gerontologist 1998;38113:113-121.
Pfeffer RI, Kurosaki TT, Harrah CH, et al. Measuremnt of functional activities in older adults in the community. J Gerontol 1982;37:323-329.
Pfeffer RI, Kurosaki TT, Chance JM, et al. Use of the Mental Function Index in older adults : reliability, validity and measurement of change over time. Am J Epidemiol 1984;120:922-935.
Dissertations and Journals
Adelman, M. Alan & Daly, P. Mel (). Initial Evaluations of the Patient with Suspected Dementia. Journal of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
