**2.2 Activities of daily living**

Activities of Daily Living (ADL) are those tasks whose purpose is personal self-care with the greatest autonomy and personal independence of the patient. This capacity allows the user to choose or decide for him/herself by making effective use of the freedom [16].

The term coined by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) brings together all those activities that a person does from the time they get up until they get back up the next day such as: self-care, productivity, leisure and free time. As specified by Romero-Ayuso [10] *"Activities of daily life encompass the most frequent activities performed by a subject, they are related to the familiar, daily, every day, human needs, independence and use of time. Depending on their cognitive complexity and purpose, towards oneself or in relation to the environment, two levels have been established: basic activities and instrumental activities of daily life. The origin of this classification already refers to the importance and need to contemplate the cognitive processes underlying the activity"*

If to all the above we add the aging process, some pathology, the difficulties to maintain that optimal level of autonomy from that moment on increase, so health professionals must focus not only on the disease itself, but also on the repercussions associated with the pathology and the forecast, in order to anticipate and maintain the quality of life of the elderly [17].
