✅ Reviewed for accuracy and relevance by Deanna Cooper Gillingham, RN, CCM, FCM on July 11, 2025.
ADLs and IADLs
Activities of daily living (ADLs) and the more advanced instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) are assessment tools used to evaluate essential areas of function for self-care and independence.
ADLs measure the level of independence in performing six basic activities:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Toileting/continence
- Transferring
- Hygiene/grooming
- Feeding
ADLs can be remembered by the mnemonic DEATH: Dressing/bathing, Eating, Ambulating, Toileting, Hygiene.
IADLs measure the patient’s ability to perform eight independent living skills that are more complex than the basic ADLs assessment. These include:
- Shopping
- Using the telephone
- Paying bills/budgeting
- Food preparation
- Housekeeping
- Laundry
- Using transportation
- Handling medications
Section GG assessment
Section GG is a standardized assessment tool used across post-acute care settings, including long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and home health, to evaluate a client’s self-care and mobility abilities. It provides a standardized scoring algorithm for specific activities of daily living and various mobility tasks. The goal is to measure a patient’s independence level in these activities, ranging from complete independence to complete dependence.
Self-care activities measured:
- Eating
- Oral hygiene
- Toilet hygiene
- Wash the upper body
- Shower/bathe self
- Upper body dressing
- Lower body dressing
- Putting on/taking off footwear
Mobility items measured:
- Roll left and right
- Sit to lie
- Lying to sitting on the side of the bed
- Sit to stand
- Chair/bed-to-chair transfer
- Toilet transfer
- Car transfer
- Walking 10 feet
- Walking 50 feet with 2 turns
- Walking 150 feet
- Walking 10 feet on uneven surfaces
- 1 step (curb)
- 4 steps
- 12 steps
- Picking up an object
- Wheeling 50 feet with two turns
- Wheeling 150 feet
This article shares a portion of the information covered on this topic in CCM Certification Made Easy, 4th Edition by Deanna Cooper Gillingham, RN, CCM, FCM (2025). For more details on this topic and related concepts, purchase your copy at CCMCertificationMadeEasy.com
