Validation of the theory: satisfaction with time-delimited daily occupations

OBJECTIVES: This study examines the construct validity of the theory Satisfaction with time-delimited daily occupations (STO). The outcome of STO concerns how individuals perceive their occupational health status and to what degree the individuals experience satisfaction with their performance of time-delimited daily occupations. DESIGN: The "known-groups technique" was used for discriminating the occupational health status among four groups (n = 147) of full-time workers or sick-listed participants. A mailed ActivityLog-sheet was used for recording their occupational health 24 times during 24 hours. The computerized program ActivityLog was used for data registration. The data analysis were accounted by ANOVA, Tukey's HSD test with significance level of p < 0,05 using the SPSS program. RESULTS: The occupational health status did not differ significantly among the four groups, but the number of records concerning work (p = 0,00) and care (p = 0,02) time-delimited daily occupations were significantly different. The patterns of occupational health status during the 24-hour-records were visually separated for the four groups. CONCLUSION: There is need for refining the STO theory and then for undertaking further investigations of the STO construct validity.