Occupational therapist’s professional reasoning regarding enabling activities through the usage of apps for people with cognitive impairments.

Digitalisation in today’s society is constantly evolving. Research shows the positive effects of apps for people with cognitive impairments by enabling meaningful activities as well as increasing independence. The purpose of this study was to describe the occupational therapist's professional reasoning regarding the recommendation and use of apps to enable activity for people with a cognitive impairment. The study adopted a qualitative approach to capture the participants' reasoning whilst working with apps. The selection was carried out with purposeful selection based on the criteria set. A total of ten participants participated. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions and then analysed with a qualitative content analysis. The analysis resulted in three categories; Identify the client's needs and prerequisites to promote activity, Match and customize the app for a sustainable use and The Occupational Therapist's prerequisites for using apps as an intervention. The results shows that the occupational therapist works closely with the client and its social network to match the appropriate app based on needs and conditions in activity. Furthermore, the occupational therapists see great benefits of using apps, primarily for the supportive features that can increase independence as well as the freedom of movement the app can contribute to. However, problem areas are in the form of uncertainty in app updates and difficulties in having sufficient knowledge of the available apps. The conclusion is that Occupational therapists in this study use a wide breadth in their reasoning. Where several aspects of the client's needs and prerequisites as well as the occupational therapist's own prerequisites are weighed together to use apps as intervention. This showed great complexity, as apps are a new and large area for the occupational therapists and therefore further studies are needed for more knowledge within the subject