Preliminary findings of the Brief Everyday Activities Measurement (BEAM) in older adults

Functional losses are common in healthy and cognitively impaired older adults. However, subtle declines in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) are not always detected in self-reports. Performance IADL measurements are financially and time burdensome, restricting their use in varied settings. To address these limitations, we developed the Brief Everyday Activities Measure (BEAM), a short (< 5 minutes) objective IADL measure that assesses medication and finance management. The BEAM was administered to 209 cognitively non-demented community-dwellers (ages 65-95 years). Community. The BEAM was administered to 209 cognitively non-demented community-dwellers (ages 65-95 years). Participants completed standardized motor, neuropsychological, psychological, and self-report functional assessments. completion time was moderate (0.65, 95% CI [.43 -.78]). Accuracy for total BEAM performance was in the low-moderate range (Kappa = 0.38, p <.001, 95% CI [.18 -.54]). As predicted, lower accuracy and longer time to complete the BEAM were both associated with worse executive functions, attention, and processing speed. Medication and finance management can be efficiently assessed within five minutes. The BEAM may be a valuable screening tool to evaluate these functional abilities.