Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, ANKARA Osteoarthritis is the most prevalent rheumatic disease in the population. Goals in the management of osteoarthritis are to control pain and disease, to protect and enhance function and to improve health status and quality of life. As osteoarthritis has negative effects on functional activities of the individuals, functional assessment is essential for outcome evaluation in both planning and execution phases of the treatment and rehabilitation. Functional assessment is the measurement of an individual's abilities in performing tasks necessary to daily living, leisure activities, vocational pursuits, social interactions and other required behaviours. Various instruments have been developed in order to quantify function for objective functional assessment. These instruments can be either generic or disease specifi c. In this article, fi rstly basic concepts regarding functional assessment will be mentioned, afterwards generic and specifi c instruments used for functional evaluation in osteoarthritis will be considered. Keywords : Osteoarthritis, Evaluation, Disability, Instrumentation