Practitioner Toolkit: Assessing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), and Functional Status

Activities of Daily Living (AD Ls) include basic skills that a person uses to manage their daily needs to live independently.ADLs refer to the following categories: grooming/personal hygiene, dressing, toileting, continence (bladder and bowel function), ambulating, and feeding (Edemekong et al., 2022).Mlinac and Feng (2016) pointed out that these skills are lea1ned in early childhood and seem to stay more preserved than higher-level tasks as cognitive functioning declines in the older population.However, the inability to accomplish these essential skills can lead to unsafe conditions, poor quality of life, and dependence on others (Edemekong et al., 2022).Being able to measure AD Ls is useful so that decisions can be made for alternative living arrangements or use of attendants in the home if an individual requires assistance.In many settings, ADLs are assessed by nurses or other medical health professionals, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists (Mlinac &