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Concepts of disability: the Activity Space Model

¹Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Montreal General Hospital, McGill University, Canada.

Social Science & Medicine (1982)

|March 1, 1995

Summary

This study introduces the Activity Space Model (ASM) for functional assessment. The ASM explains how impairments restrict activities by evaluating performance, cost, and value, offering new insights into disability and assessment strategies.

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Area of Science:

Rehabilitation Science
Disability Studies
Health Psychology

Background:

Functional assessment is crucial for understanding disability.
Existing models may not fully capture the complexity of daily functioning.
A new framework is needed to integrate performance, cost, and value in activity limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce and describe the Activity Space Model (ASM) as a novel conceptual framework for functional assessment.
To explain how the ASM conceptualizes the relationship between functional impairments and activity restrictions.
To highlight the theoretical and practical implications of the ASM for disability research and practice.

Main Methods:

The paper proposes the Activity Space Model (ASM) as a multidimensional space representing human potential for activity.
It introduces difficulty curves to evaluate restrictions in elementary abilities based on performance and psychophysical cost.
The model conceptualizes daily functioning through a tradeoff between psychophysical cost and the value of behavior for individuals with disabilities.

Main Results:

The ASM provides a framework where functional impairments lead to restrictions in an individual's activity space.
Difficulty curves quantify the relationship between performance level and the psychophysical cost of activity.
The model explains task performance based on the tradeoff between cost and value, measured in units of difficulty.

Conclusions:

The Activity Space Model (ASM) offers a new, integrated perspective on disability and functional assessment.
It provides a theoretical basis for understanding how individuals with impairments navigate their daily activities.
The ASM suggests novel strategies for developing and evaluating functional assessment measures, with implications for both research and clinical practice.

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