DEPENDENCE

The degree of dependence of an elderly person, that is, the limitations that they present to carry out one or more basic tasks of daily life without help, does not respond to a mathematical formula. Although the general link between disease and disability is undeniable, its development also depends on different factors that must be controlled and analyzed individually. Some older people who suffer from the same illness as others do much better in their daily lives. On other occasions, people without a disease that can be considered incapacitated have a great dependence on others. This loss of functional capacity that is difficult to justify is a frequent phenomenon that experts call excess disability. Excess disability can be defined as a level of functioning of the person in the performance of activities necessary for daily life lower than that attributable to their health conditions.   T his is an informal book, without any more pretense, lacking technical or scientific information, simply informative.