Development of the St. George Hospital Memory Disorders Clinic Occupational Therapy Assessment Scale

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Neuroscience
• Occupational Therapy

Background:

• Early cognitive decline significantly impacts daily living activities.
• Monitoring functional status is crucial for managing patients with memory disorders.
• Existing assessments may not fully capture functional changes in early stages.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the St. George Hospital Memory Disorders Clinic Occupational Therapy Assessment Scale (OTAS) for assessing activities of daily living (ADL) in early cognitive decline.
• To determine the psychometric properties and discriminatory ability of the OTAS.
• To establish OTAS as a valid and sensitive tool for early-stage cognitive impairment.

Main Methods:

• The OTAS, a performance-based assessment of ADL, was administered in the home environment.
• Thirty items were investigated, with a focus on 19 items measuring higher functional domains.
• Psychometric properties including internal consistency, interrater reliability, and correlations with established scales were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Nineteen items of the OTAS demonstrated utility in discriminating between subjects with early cognitive decline.
• The 19 items exhibited high internal consistency (alpha = .89) and interrater reliability (kappa range: .71-1.0).
• OTAS showed strong correlations with Lawton's IADL scale (r = .75), Nottingham ADL scale (r = .67), and the Mini-Mental State Examination (r = .73).

Conclusions:

• The OTAS is a psychometrically sound and valid instrument for assessing functional abilities in individuals with early cognitive impairment.
• The scale is sensitive to functional problems, making it valuable for monitoring patients in the early stages of cognitive decline.
• OTAS provides a reliable method for occupational therapists to assess ADL in home environments.