Cardol et al. (55) and Collopy (33) suggest that to
understand the meaning of autonomy in relation to a
disabling condition (such as frailty), a distinction
between decisional autonomy (the ability to make
decisions without external restraint) and executional
autonomy (the ability to act as one wishes) should be
made. They further state that executional autonomy is
dependent on decisional autonomy, but not the
reverse, and it is essential to distinguish between
decisional and executional autonomy, especially in
the care of frail older people (33,55).
A distinction between the concepts seems to be