Impact of Occupation-Based Groups on Occupational Performance and Satisfaction Outcomes: Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Occupational Therapy
• Clinical Research

Background:

• Occupation-based interventions are utilized in inpatient rehabilitation to enhance patient outcomes.
• The comparative effectiveness of group-based versus individual occupation-based interventions is not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot an occupation-based group intervention within an inpatient rehabilitation setting.
• To compare occupational performance, satisfaction, and goal attainment between group and individual occupation-based interventions.

Main Methods:

• Pilot quasi-experimental pre- to post-intervention design with a nonequivalent control group.
• Participants received either usual care (individual interventions) or usual care plus a group intervention.
• Outcome measures included the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) and Goal Attainment Scale (GAS).

Main Results:

• Both the intervention and control groups demonstrated statistically significant improvements in outcomes.
• No significant differences in outcomes were observed between the occupation-based group and individual intervention groups.
• Medium to large effect sizes were reported for improvements in both groups.

Conclusions:

• Pilot data suggests that occupation-based group interventions may yield outcomes comparable to individual treatments in inpatient rehabilitation.
• A larger sample size is necessary to definitively ascertain the impact and efficacy of occupation-based group interventions.