Page Reviewed / Updated - May 2015
There are many variations on the definition of the activities of daily living but most organizations agree there are 5 basic categories.
1. Personal hygiene - bathing, grooming and oral care
2. Dressing - the ability to make appropriate clothing decisions and physically dress oneself
3. Eating - the ability to feed oneself though not necessarily to prepare food
4. Maintaining continence - both the mental and physical ability to use a restroom
5. Transferring - moving oneself from seated to standing and get in and out of bed
Whether or not an individual is capable of performing these activities on their own or if they rely on a family caregiver to perform the ADLs serves a comparative measure of their independence.
PBS.org and the AARP developed the following worksheet as a tool to help families determine with which ADLs and IADLs their loved ones require assistance and how much assistance is needed.
|ADLs / IADLs||Requires No
|Uses the Phone|
|Passive Supervision (to prevent wandering or self-injury)|
There are other related ADL measurements scales and tests. Two of which provide point scoring systems to help families to determine the types of and extent of care necessary. One can learn more about these at the following links.
Katz ADL Scale
There are several options available to families who wish to have an assessment of their loved one's ability to complete the activities of daily living. Choosing amongst these options largely depends on the purpose for which one is having an activities of daily living assessment (also called a geriatric assessment).
For families who simply wish to have a scale by which to judge the ability of their loved one to function independently, there are multiple online geriatric assessment tools. Many of these are intended for use by untrained professionals. A family member answers a series of questions about their loved one who requires assistance, tallies up a point total and can compare their results to other individuals. These online tools are free to use, one can get started here.
For a more formal ADL assessment, many families turn either to their family doctor or to an occupational therapist. This type of assessment is more focused on their medical well being than the free online tools which tend to focus on non-medical care needs. Depending on the situation, Medicare may pay for ADL assessment.
The third objective families often have when getting an ADL assessment is to determine if their loved one is functionally eligible for a government assistance program such as Medicaid. Local area agencies on aging (AAAs) often serve as the gateway to assistance programs and many of these will provide activities of daily living assessments as part of the application process. One should contact their local area agencies on aging and inquire.