Instrumental Activities of Daily Living

Complex daily tasks that require higher-order cognitive and organizational skills beyond basic self-care. IADLs include managing finances, shopping, preparing meals, housekeeping, using transportation, managing medications, and using communication devices. The Lawton IADL Scale is commonly used to assess these abilities. Independence in IADLs indicates executive functioning capacity and correlates with ability to live independently. For technology designers, IADL independence provides a practical framework for understanding user capabilities without relying on diagnostic categories.