The value that the elderly put on being autonomous is an intrinsic characteristic of the aging population that can have a decisive influence on their motivation to maintain or recover their autonomy. This study was designed to examine the importance that elderly people who have lost their autonomy put on the ability to perform themselves five activities of daily living: eating, washing, dressing, eliminating and moving around. It also explores the influence of age, sex, place of residence, level of physical autonomy, feeling of well-being and socio-economic status on the value put on autonomy. A non-probabilistic sample of 68 elderly subjects was interviewed and the value put on autonomy was evaluated using two instruments: Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum's differential semantic, and Torrance's time trade-off technique. The results suggest that the subjects consider physical autonomy very important. Educational level and the degree of physical autonomy were the main factors linked to importance. However, no link with age or place of residence (institution vs. home) was found.
