A composite measure of intrinsic capacity — spanning cognition, locomotor function, psychological well-being, and vitality — strongly predicted both functional decline and all-cause mortality across a decade in 1,705 Australian men aged 70 and older. Using confirmatory factor analysis on the CHAMP cohort (2005–2007), researchers built three validated models: a 21-indicator literature-based model, a 10-indicator minimum-set, and a 10-indicator clinically informed version. Higher intrinsic capacity scores were associated with odds ratios near 0.91–0.93 for baseline ADL/IADL dependence and approximately 0.96 for 10-year mortality, with the sensory domain notably failing to reach statistical significance in the second-order factor structure.
Intrinsic capacity, a framework championed by the WHO's Decade of Healthy Ageing, has long suffered from inconsistent operationalization across studies, making cross-cohort comparisons nearly impossible. This work addresses that gap by offering purpose-built, context-sensitive models — a meaningful methodological contribution. The clinically informed version, developed with geriatrician input, is particularly valuable for bedside application, potentially enabling routine screening without specialist equipment. However, several limitations deserve scrutiny: the cohort is exclusively older Australian men, limiting generalizability to women and non-Western populations. Causality cannot be inferred from this observational design. As a preprint not yet peer-reviewed, the statistical modeling choices and validity claims require independent expert evaluation before clinical adoption. Still, for healthy-ageing research, this represents a genuinely useful standardization effort — more consolidating than paradigm-shifting, but practically important.
