Lawton-Brody IADL Scale
Instrumental activities of daily living: eight items scored 0 or 1. Complements the Barthel Index at the upper end of function.
Updated · Methodology
About this calculator
The scale covers what independent living needs beyond self-care: telephone, shopping, cooking, housekeeping, laundry, transport, medication and money. Each item scores 0 or 1. The 1969 original did not credit men for cooking, housekeeping and laundry, giving them a maximum of 5 rather than 8. That split reflected the household conventions of the time rather than any difference in ability, so current practice usually scores all eight items for everyone. This calculator supports both variants and normalises the thresholds to the eight-point range, otherwise a man scoring a full 5 of 5 would land in moderate dependence. The scale is sensitive to early cognitive decline: handling money and medication fails before basic self-care does. It is also shaped by habit, so someone who never cooked or did laundry scores low for reasons other than lost function. Medication and finances are worth verifying directly rather than by self-report.
Source
Formula version: lawton-1969-v1
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