Objective: To describe the development and initial psychometric properties of a new outcome measure for health behaviors that delay or prevent secondary impairments associated with spinal cord injury (SCI). Design: Persons with SCI were surveyed during routine annual physical evaluations. Setting: Veterans A airs Medical Center Spinal Cord Injury Unit, which specializes in primary care for persons with SCI. Participants: Forty-nine persons with SCI, aged 19 ± 73 years, 1 ± 50 years post-SCI. Main Outcome Measure: The newly developed Spinal Cord Injury Lifestyle Scale (SCILS). Results: Internal consistency is high (a=0.81). Correlations between clinicians' ratings of participants' health behavior and the new SCILS provide preliminary support for construct validity. Conclusion: The SCILS is a brief, self-report measure of health-related behavior in persons with SCI. It is a promising new outcome measure to evaluate the e ectiveness of clinical and educational e orts for health maintenance and prevention of secondary impairments associated with SCI.

| Background: As the population ages, changes occur in the epidemiological profile towards the current predominance of chronic degenerative diseases which, when untreated, lead to loss of functional capacity and require long-term assistance. Objectives: To describe the profile of the elderly attending the geriatric physical therapy service and to identify factors associated with functional disability. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive analytical study was conducted. The medical records of elderly individuals were analyzed using the first physical therapy assessment, which included sociodemographic, clinical and mobility data. To determine the degree of disability (mild/moderate), the Brazilian Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire (BOMFAQ) was used. Descriptive analysis and univariate logistic regression were performed, followed by multivariate logistic regression. Results: The sample comprised 130 elderly patients with a mean age of 73.3 [standar deviation (SD)=7.2] years-old, predominantly female (63.9%), sedentary (71.5%) and presenting three to four diseases (47.7%). The mean of activities with difficulty in the BOMFAQ was 6.7 (SD=4.8), 35 (26.9%) individuals presented mild disability and 95 (73.1%) moderate. The participant characteristic that presented a greatest risk of disability was self-reporting of poor health (OR=12.4). The factors identified, which together can determine functional decline, were sedentary lifestyle, presence of dizziness, polypharmacy and high pain intensity. Conclusions: Elderly individuals attended by the geriatric physical therapy service showed a profile associated with disability, characterized by potentially modifiable factors. This profile also reinforces the demand for long-term care for this population.Keywords: physical therapy; health services for the aged; aged; disabled health. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLERossi ALS, Pereira VS, Driusso P, Rebelatto JR, Ricci NA. Profile of the elderly in physical therapy and its relation to functional disability. Braz J Phys Ther. 2013 Jan-Feb; 17(1): 77-85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1413-35552012005000060 RESUMO | Contextualização: Com o envelhecimento populacional, houve alterações no perfil epidemiológico, com o predomínio atual das doenças crônico-degenerativas que, quando não tratadas, levam à perda da capacidade funcional e exigem assistência de longo prazo. Objetivos: Descrever o perfil do idoso atendido no serviço de fisioterapia geriátrica e identificar fatores associados à incapacidade funcional. Método: Foi realizado estudo transversal descritivo analítico. Os prontuários dos idosos foram analisados por meio da primeira avaliação fisioterapêutica, que incluiu dados sociodemográficos, clínicos e de mobilidade. Para determinar o grau de deficiência (leve/ moderada), foi aplicado o Brazilian Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire (BOMFAQ). A análise descritiva e a regressão logística univariada foram realizadas, seguidas de regressão logística multivariada. Resultados: A amostra foi compost...