Functional impairment in geriatric hoarding participants

Older adults with clinically significant hoarding (n=28) and non-psychiatric controls (n=25) were formally assessed using measures of mental status, psychiatric comorbidity, hoarding symptom severity, and the activities of daily living-hoarding (ADL-H) scale. Moderate to substantial impairment was found in multiple functional domains for a portion of hoarding participants. Significant differences were detected between ADL-H scores in non-psychiatric controls and geriatric hoarding participants. As expected, hoarding severity measures significantly were associated with ADL impairment. The ADL-H is a clinically useful tool for measuring and assessing important functional domains affected by clutter that may not be assessed by traditional hoarding severity or ADL measures. ADL improvement is an important treatment target for older adults with hoarding. Published by Elsevier Inc.