Activities of daily living (ADLs) are vital and routine tasks; difficulty performing them indicates the need for professional assistance. ADL functions are necessary for an individual’s self-care daily procedures, such as grooming and getting on and off the toilet. On the other hand, IADL functions are more concerned with self-reliance in a particular scenario. For instance, instrumental activities of daily living may include food preparation, grocery shopping, housekeeping, and so on (Gobbens, 2018). Needing assistance with IADLs is frequently associated with aging, but this is not always the case. For illustration, individuals who suffer from mental illnesses may be able to handle their ADLs but often require assistance with plenty of IADLs. The inability to perform ADL tasks, however, signifies a more severe form of disability than IADL disability, resulting in a smaller percentage of individuals with ADL disability rather than IADL disability (Akosile et al., 2018). Both ADL and IADL disabilities have a negative impact on one’s well-being and quality of life.
ADL is applied to assess a human’s functional capacity. The difficulty in performing ADLs necessitates the assistance of other people or mechanical equipment. ADL evaluation is crucial because it predicts admission to care facilities, the need for additional housing attributes, hospital stays, and the utilization of paid home healthcare. A patient’s ADLs can also be employed to evaluate the efficacy of a treatment plan (Rosenberg et al., 2019). Various organizations have adopted numerous checklists and questionnaires to examine daily living activities. Examples of such checklists are the Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living and the Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Scale, which are among the most commonly utilized ones. Before discharge and admission, all interprofessional healthcare staff employees are obligated to evaluate patients’ functionality.
References
Akosile, C. O., Mgbeojedo, U. G., Maruf, F. A., Okoye, E. C., Umeonwuka, I. C., & Ogunniyi, A. (2018). Depression, functional disability and quality of life among Nigerian older adults: Prevalences and relationships.Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 74, 39–43.
Gobbens, R. J. (2018). Associations of ADL and IADL disability with physical and mental dimensions of quality of life in people aged 75 years and older.PeerJ, 6, e5425.
Rosenberg, T., Montgomery, P., Hay, V., & Lattimer, R. (2019). Using frailty and quality of life measures in clinical care of the elderly in Canada to predict death, nursing home transfer and hospitalisation – the frailty and ageing cohort study. BMJ Open, 9(11), e032712.