Rahja Miia, Laver Kate
Department of Rehabilitation, Aged and Extended Care, Flinders Medical Centre, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia.
Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre, Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Hospital, Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia.
Aust Occup Ther J. 2019 Aug;66(4):511-518. doi: 10.1111/1440-1630.12578. Epub 2019 Apr 10.
Occupational therapy can delay functional decline and improve quality of life of older people. Yet people may not seek occupational therapy services as they may not be aware of their scope or benefits. The aim of this study was to ascertain what the general public in Australia knows about occupational therapy services for older people.
A cross-sectional cohort study completed via a consumer panel provider PureProfile (https://www.pureprofile.com/au/) a company specialising in online survey programming to registered participants of the general public ('panel'). For a fee, a client can include a question in a weekly survey, and receive approximately 1000 responses (including detail about the respondents' gender, age group and place of residence). We asked a free-text question about the participants' understanding of occupational therapy and its role in supporting older adults. We used descriptive statistics to summarise sociodemographic data. Thematic approach to analysis was used to explore themes from the free text responses. Chi-squared test for independence was used to explore association and/or differences between age group, gender, place of residence and understanding about occupational therapy for older people. Included were people aged ≥18 years living in Australia.
We received 1004 responses; about half were female (50.9%) and one-fifth (20.1%) aged 65 or over. Of the 1004 respondents, approximately 10% could provide a good or advanced description of occupational therapy. Over half of the participants had some, but limited knowledge about the profession with references to general rehabilitation, physical therapies and return to work type interventions.
Knowledge about the role of occupational therapy in supporting older people is limited. There is a need to address misconceptions that occupational therapy is only concerned with workplace or physical health-related matters to enable better service engagement in the consumer-driven care model in Australia.
职业疗法可以延缓老年人的功能衰退并提高其生活质量。然而，人们可能不会寻求职业疗法服务，因为他们可能不了解其范围或益处。本研究的目的是确定澳大利亚公众对老年人职业疗法服务的了解程度。
我们收到了1004份回复；约一半为女性（50.9%），五分之一（20.1%）年龄在65岁及以上。在1004名受访者中，约10%能够对职业疗法进行良好或深入的描述。超过一半的参与者对该职业有一些了解，但知识有限，提及的内容包括一般康复、物理治疗和重返工作类型的干预措施。
关于职业疗法在支持老年人方面作用的知识有限。有必要消除误解，即职业疗法只涉及工作场所或与身体健康相关的事项，以便在澳大利亚以消费者为导向的护理模式中更好地参与服务。
