Narrator: This is Science Today. A new study found nearly a million adults who need help with two or more daily tasks essential to activities of daily living, or ADLs, are coping without assistance. Mitch LaPlante who led the University of California, San Francisco study says there are a number of barriers that prevent people from getting all the help they really need.

LaPlante: On the informal side, when people depend on their family and their friends, their family members and friends have other things that they can be doing or need to do and sometimes, they can't provide all the help that someone actually needs. On the formal side, we know that there's a substantial variation across the states in how Medicaid funds formal services for people who need help with ADLs. They're very restrictive in terms of their eligibility guidelines, so it makes it difficult for someone who needs paid help, to access it.

Narrator: LaPlante says their study is a call to action for better policies and guidelines. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.