

Mobility is needed especially if an individual is to maintain independent living. A decrease in muscle function, loss of muscle mass, reduction in muscle strength, gait changes affecting balance, and stiffer and limited mobile joints can significantly jeopardize the mobility of older adult clients. Increasing physical activity has been put forward to be an important intervention with the potential to detain both these processes (Asp et al., 2017).Īging is also considered one of the factors concerning the alteration in mobility. Longitudinal studies show that obesity predicts impaired physical mobility, as a product of two simultaneous processes where getting older is associated with a decline in muscle mass but also an increase in fat mass. Impaired physical mobility usually includes impairments in daily life activities such as walking short distances, climbing stairs, and showering. This is the ability to walk and includes assistance from another person or an assistive device, such as a cane, walker, or crutches.


This includes moving from a bed into a chair or moving from one chair to another. The action of the client moving from one surface to another.

The ability of the client to move around in bed, including moving from lying to sitting and sitting to lying. There are three main areas of functional mobility: Functional mobility is the ability of the client to move around in their environment, including walking, standing up from a chair, sitting down from standing, and moving around in bed. Physical mobility requires sufficient muscle strength and energy, along with adequate skeletal stability, joint function, and neuromuscular synchronization. Mobility is the ability of a client to change and control their body position. In most cases, even if clients are discharged from the hospital earlier than expected, they are transferred to rehabilitation facilities or sent home for physical therapy. The incidence of the disease and disability continues to expand with the longer life expectancy for most Americans. In fact, some degree of immobility is very common in most conditions such as stroke, leg fracture, multiple sclerosis, trauma, and morbid obesity. And when it occurs, it becomes a complex healthcare problem that involves many different members of the healthcare team.
