Age and functional abilities of people with a mental handicap: evidence from the Wessex mental handicap register.

Functional behaviours in relation to age were investigated using data from approximately 3000 people on the Wessex Mental Handicap Register. The main functional data on the register, the National Development Team's 24-item questionnaire, were cluster and factor analysed to derive a series of client-defining variables. Age-trends were analysed in relation to self and community care skills (activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living), problem behaviours, chronic medical conditions, mobility and sensory abilities. Generally, it was found that differential mortality leads to an older population in good health and with a high level of functional skills. As with the general population, however, people over 70 years old show increasing prevalence of age-related infirmities.