Indian Journal of Community Health · Feb 28, 2026
Intrinsic capacity screening among elderly using WHO ICOPE tool in rural hilly setting of Garhwal Uttarakhand
By Chamoli S, Goyal N, Rawat CMS et al.
Background: Intrinsic capacity combines physical and mental capacities of person and decline with ageing process. WHO Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) guidelines have given simple screening tool to assess intrinsic capacity of elderly people, focusing on integrated care in various domains of ageing including locomotion capacity, vitality, sensory abilities, cognition, and psychological capacity. Objective: To screen intrinsic capacity among elderly using step 1 WHO ICOPE tool. Settings and Design: Cross sectional, community-based study. Methods and Material: Intrinsic capacity across domains including locomotion, vitality, cognition, hearing, vision and psychological wellbeing, was assessed among 260 elderly age 60 years and above in 10 villages, using step 1 WHO ICOPE screening tool. Analysis of data was done with SPSS v.27. Results: Good intrinsic capacity was found among 122 (46.9%) elderly in all domains. Elderly in 60-69 years age category were 18.7 times more probable to have good IC in comparison to 80 years and above. Also, illiteracy, widowhood and living alone were significantly associated with poor intrinsic capacity. Overall good IC in various domains was not significantly associated with gender. Only in cognitive domain intrinsic capacity was significantly better among male elderly. Conclusions: More than half of study elderly had decline in intrinsic capacity in different domains and age is important predictor for decline in intrinsic capacity.