Validation of additional domains in activities of daily living, culturally appropriate for Muslims

Background: Measurement of activities of daily living (ADL) is an integral part of geriatric care. Prayer is a central part of the life of practicing Muslims.

Objectives: To validate additional domains of ADL based on the functional capacity of Muslims to perform prayer, a culturally appropriate measure for those practicing the Islamic faith.

Methods: Functional capacity was measured using 2 scales: an 8-domain scale (ADL-8) and a 3-component domain scale assessing the key components of Islamic prayer: washing for prayer, physical motion during prayer and the words spoken. A randomly selected sample of 132 community-based practicing Muslim people from Arabic-speaking countries, aged 65+ years were assessed.

Results: The mean age +/- standard deviation was 72.6 +/- 7.0 with a female to male ratio of 0.97. The correlation between the summation scores for the prayer ADL and the ADL-8 was r = 0.922 (p < 0.001), while correlation with prayer ADL and each of the 8 components in the ADL-8 ranged from r = 0.806 (p < 0.001) to r = 0.906 (p < 0.001). There was a high level of construct validity with the reliability coefficient for the 3 components of the prayer ADL being 0.933 with a standardized item alpha of 0.935, with a range of 0.746-0.896 for the subscales.

Conclusion: The prayer ADL domains provide an additional valid, short, simple and culturally orientated functional assessment for those of the Islamic faith.