The purpose of this article is to compare patterns of functional ability among four groups of elderly people with different cultural backgrounds. The data originates from (1) a study of 369 65 to 74 year old people in Birmingham, born in England, the West Indies, and Asia, and (2) a study of 734 rafter homogeneous 70 year old people in Glostrup, Denmark. In both surveys functional ability was measured by interviews about Physical and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (PADL and IADL). With regard to PADL there were only a few differences between the four study populations, whereas larger differences were found in IADL. The general pattern was that the Glostrup population had better functional ability than the other study populations and that Asians had the poorest functional ability. The reasons for these differences may arise from different patterns of disease, variations in life style, and differing access to and response from social and health services in the four cultural groups.
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