Date Presented 04/020/21
Low-income older adults are a vulnerable population who encounter many barriers to successfully aging in place. In this study, a 10-week Lifestyle Redesign® program, Discover Wellness, was implemented to determine its feasibility in promoting aging in place among low-income older adults residing in supportive housing. Innovative interventions such as Discover Wellness will help advance community OT practice regarding low-income older adults and aging in place.
Primary Author and Speaker: Jordan Thompson
Additional Authors and Speakers: Paula Costello
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of a Lifestyle Redesign® intervention, Discover Wellness, in promoting aging in place among low-income older adults residing in supportive housing. The research questions for this study included: to what extent does Discover Wellness increase participants’ self-assessment of quality of life in the domains of physical health, psychological, social relationships, and environment via the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire? And to what extent does Discover Wellness increase participants’ self-assessment of occupational performance and occupational satisfaction, measured via the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM)? Low-income older adults are a vulnerable population that encounter many barriers to aging in place. Innovative interventions in occupational therapy are necessary to support this population with aging in place. Lifestyle Redesign® is an intervention that can be used to address this need. Lifestyle Redesign® has demonstrated effectiveness across a wide range of populations. However, there is limited research that examines the relationship between Lifestyle Redesign® and aging in place, in particular among the at-risk population of low income older adults residing in supportive housing.
DESIGN: This study was a quasi-experimental research design, with one group of participants and outcomes collected at baseline and post-intervention. Participants were recruited via convenient sampling from older adults receiving supportive housing services at a local residential facility. Subjects were included if they received supportive housing services, were at least 65 years old, and spoke basic English. Five subjects met inclusion criteria and completed the entire program. All subjects received the same intervention, a 10-week Lifestyle Redesign® program, consisting of both individual and group sessions.
METHOD: The instruments used to collect data in this study included the WHOQOL-BREF and the COPM. Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests for non-parametric paired data were used to determine median differences between baseline and post-intervention scores on the instruments. A p-value of .05 was used to determine if significant differences in scores existed. Demographic data including age and gender was collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics.
RESULTS: Participant scores increased in the domains of physical health and psychological on the WHOQOL-BREF, but were not statistically significant. Scores in the domains of social relations and environment on the WHOQOL-BREF remained stable between baseline and post-intervention. Participant scores in occupational performance on the COPM increased significantly (p = .043), and scores in occupational satisfaction also increased, but were not statistically significant. Forty percent of participants demonstrated clinically important improvements in occupational performance, and 60% demonstrated clinically important improvements in occupational satisfaction.
CONCLUSION: Discover Wellness is a feasible program for promoting aging in place among low-income older adults residing in supportive housing. The domains of the WHOQOL-BREF are related to barriers of aging in place. Therefore, the improvements found in the physical health and psychological domains may enable successful aging in place. The increased ability to perform daily occupations found on the COPM further enables successful aging in place. This study has important implications for occupational therapy practice. Results from Discover Wellness provides practitioners with important information for the application of Lifestyle Redesign® interventions in community-based occupational therapy to promote aging in place.
References
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