OTJR: Occupational Therapy Journal of Research

This article proposes that the idea of meaningful occupations can be used by occupational therapists and occupational scientists to create organizational development interventions to help build sustainable business organizations. Review of recent organizational development literature indicates a trend toward an increasing lack of concern for individual employee needs. A conceptual model of organizational development that reinstates focus on the well-being of the individual as a basis for building sustainable organizations in which employee and organizational goals match is proposed for use by occupational therapists and occupational scientists who may be interested in contributing to this area of human endeavor. An occupation-based worker evaluation formula based on participation in occupations that are meaningful to an employee is suggested.

Research in occupational therapy is necessary for the validation of therapeutic interventions. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) control against potentially confounding variables and provide validating evidence, if properly reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of reporting RCTs in occupational therapy and speech therapy by use of an expansion of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. The Nelson—Moberg—Norton Expanded CONSORT Instrument (NMNECI) was used to evaluate 15 occupational therapy RCTs and 15 speech therapy RCTs. After the principal investigator evaluated all 30 articles, a masked research assistant evaluated 16 randomly selected RCTs to test for inter-rater reliability. An intraclass correlation coefficient of .93 confirmed overall inter-rater agreement. On average, the 30 articles were consistent with 119.5 NMNECI sub-items (SD = 25.48) of the 212 possible sub-items. Occupational therapy RCTs (mean = 130.07, SD = 20.21) were more consistent with the CONSORT statement than speech therapy RCTs (mean = 108.93, SD = 26.40), t(28) = 2.46, p = .02. RCTs in occupational therapy and other allied health professions could benefit from using the CONSORT statement as a tool for reporting future research studies.

Because the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) is associated with global aspects of community functioning, it is critical to evaluate whether the information gained from specific ADL assessments contributes to a reliable prediction of the overall amount of assistance needed for a person to function in the community. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive use of an ADL assessment, the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), to determine which people with mental retardation need support or assistance to function in the community. A sample of 380 data records from the AMPS international database of people with various levels of mental retardation was included in the study. Many-faceted Rasch analyses and logistic regression models were used for data analysis. The results indicated that only the AMPS ADL process ability measures contributed significantly and substantially to the prediction of the level of assistance required to function in the community for individuals with mild to moderate mental retardation when used in conjunction with age, gender, and level of mental retardation. The results have clinical implications for occupational therapists working with these people because ADL process ability can be improved by occupational therapy interventions.

A non-randomized pretest—posttest design was used to evaluate changes in occupational performance, self-esteem, and quality of life among clients completing a substance abuse recovery program that included occupational therapy services addressing life skills. Seventy-five clients participated in intake and discharge assessment (4- to 6-month interval) that used the Occupational Performance History Interview (Version 2.0), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Quality of Life Rating scale. A limited number of follow-up interviews at 3 and 6 months were also conducted. Marked improvement with significant differences and large effect sizes were found between intake and discharge scores for all measures. Most clients scored in the range of moderate occupational dysfunction at discharge, when their highest performance level was seen. Follow-up data revealed that occupational performance declined at 3 months and improved again at 6 months. Change in occupational performance is clearly reflected in the recovery process, but recovery is challenged when clients leave the supportive halfway house environment.

Independent street crossing is a necessary skill for children to have so they can engage in different occupations and complete tasks such as arriving at school or after-school activities. Without the appropriate opportunities to practice and master street crossing, children's participation will be incomplete and they will not be able to attain their physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials. Training children in safe street crossing is especially important because pedestrian injury is the second leading cause of death and serious injury among children between 5 and 14 years old. The existing methods for teaching children how to cross a street safely are difficult to transfer to real-life situations. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual reality environment in teaching children how to cross a street safely. Eighty-six typical children (55 girls and 31 boys) between 7 and 12 years old participated in the study. The children who failed the virtual reality test were randomly assigned to training and control groups. The children were observed while crossing a real street and tested within the virtual environment both before and after the virtual reality training. Results indicate that children in the training group significantly improved their street crossing abilities in both the virtual reality simulation and the real street crossing in comparison to the control group. Street crossing became safer with increasing age, but no differences were found between boys and girls. This low-cost and readily available street crossing simulation had a positive effect on children's street crossing behavior in the real environment and on their self-reported satisfaction. These results provide support for the potential of training in a virtual street crossing simulation to transfer to actual street crossing.