The Effect of Client-Centered Occupational Therapy on the Self-Care Satisfaction and Performance of Older Adults With Cerebrovascular Accidents

Objectives: This study has been done in order to evaluate the effects of client-centered occupational therapy on satisfaction and self-care performance among clients with stroke. Methods & Materials: In this study, 24 clients with stroke who were referred to Rofeydeh Stroke Rehabilitation Center were selected by randomized sampling based on the inclusion criteria and randomly divided into two groups of twelve–intervention and control. Two clients from the study group refused to continue and were excluded from the study. Subsequently, the clients in the intervention group received 24 forty-five-minute sessions of client-centered occupational therapy in self-care activities. The control underwent the conventional occupational therapy. The time of each treatment session for both groups was 45 minutes. Data collection tool included a questionnaire for client demographics, the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) and Barthel's ADL Index. Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in satisfaction, performance and independency in self-care neither before nor after intervention. However, for each group, independent of the other, significant differences were found before and after intervention in satisfaction levels (intervention: P=0.009 control: P=0.011), performance status (intervention: P=0.028, control: P=0.007) and independency in self-care (intervention: P=0.019 control: P=0.029). Conclusion: The findings show that client-centered occupational therapy could improve satisfaction, performance and independency in self-care among clients with stroke. However, this effect was not significant enough to be observed when the two groups were compared. The only significant difference was seen when comparisons were made before and after intervention in the intervention group