Establishment of Reliability of the Occupation-Based Practice Assessment

Area of Science:

• Occupational therapy
• Psychometrics
• Health professions education

Background:

• Occupation is central to occupational therapy but its therapeutic application is inconsistent.
• A reliable assessment tool is needed to measure and enhance the use of occupation as a therapeutic medium.
• The Occupation-Based Practice Assessment (OBPA) was developed to address this need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish the preliminary psychometric properties of the Occupation-Based Practice Assessment (OBPA).
• To evaluate the inter-rater reliability of the OBPA using simulated video cases.

Main Methods:

• Methodological study design.
• Inter-rater reliability testing using simulated video cases.
• Analysis of reliability coefficients for the overall scale and its subsections.

Main Results:

• Overall acceptable inter-rater reliability for the OBPA (ICC = .868).
• Acceptable reliability for subsections: Meaning and Purposeful Occupation (.871), Therapeutic Intent (.819), and Engaged Participation (.807).
• Excellent reliability for Context (.946) and Actual Doing (.981); slightly below acceptable for Meaning (.747), Adaptation (.799), and Participation (.735).

Conclusions:

• The OBPA demonstrates acceptable preliminary inter-rater reliability.
• The OBPA has potential for use in enhancing student learning, clinical practice, professional development, program evaluation, and research.
• Further in-vivo testing is recommended to validate the OBPA's utility in real-world settings.