A Forty-year Retrospective of Assessment of Activities of Daily Living

Authors

Hsi-Ying Chang
Yu-Wei Hsieh
I-Ping Hsueh
Ching-Lin Hsieh

Translated Title

日常生活活動功能評量之四十年回顧

Abstract

Background and Purpose: The term activities of daily living (ADL) refers to the basic skills that a person needs in order to carry out the fundamental physical functions of self-care and independent living. In this survey paper, we reviewarticle the studies on ADL that involve theories of ADL, the concepts and items of measurement, and the test theory developed for ADL assessment. Unfortunately, the issues mentioned above have not been well integrated systematically. With this reviewarticle, we would like to provide a picture of past and current trends in ADL assessment.Method: We searched literature reviewarticles and rehabilitation or measurement textbooks for ADL scales. These scales cited lists of references in articles published since 1990. For each stage, we selected 5 articles about ADL based on the most frequently cited references over a period of approximately 10 years. Result: In this paper, we have selected 20 ADL scales out of 78 as representatives in order to develop a picture of the trends in ADL assessment from 1957 to 2004. We partitioned this period into four stages, 1957-1970, 1971-1980, 1981-1990, and 1991-2004, in order to determine the trends in the different stages. We have made the following observations: (1) Most ADL scales lack theoretical justification, with the exception of the Katz ADL scale, published in 1963, and the Stroke Impact Scale, published in 1999. (2) Measurement of ADL performance has been the main measurement during each stage. (3) Basic ADL (BADL) and Instrumental ADL (IADL) were once used separately as the main measurements during the earlier stages, and recent ADL assessments are composed of both BADL and IADL. (4) These 20 ADL scales were developed or tested with classical test theory; however, modern test theory has been applied to 7 of them since 1993. Conclusion: These observations may be helpful in understanding the future trends of ADL assessment in both clinical work and research.

Language

Traditional Chinese

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.6315/2006.34(2)01

First Page

63

Last Page

71

Recommended Citation

Chang, Hsi-Ying; Hsieh, Yu-Wei; Hsueh, I-Ping; and Hsieh, Ching-Lin (2006) "A Forty-year Retrospective of Assessment of Activities of Daily Living," Rehabilitation Practice and Science: Vol. 34: Iss. 2, Article 1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6315/2006.34(2)01
Available at: https://rps.researchcommons.org/journal/vol34/iss2/1