Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong SY(1), Chan PSA(1), Au KMB(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Occupational Therapy Department, Tai Po Hospital
Introduction :
Activity of daily living (ADL) training is an important intervention for many patient groups and is provided by occupational therapists. After having an illness or sustaining an injury, regaining the skills to perform routine ADL is often the first step to resume one's participation in life and hence the training often commences early during in-patient phase. However, regaining of skills may take time with repeated practice. The need for continuous training often extends beyond in-patient phase. Further practice of the skills after discharge in home environment would be beneficial to many patients to facilitate the mastery and generalization of learnt skills. With the development of technology and the introduction of tele-rehabilitation, an ADL App has been developed by Hospital Authority in 2019 to provide better support to patients and continuity of care and training seamlessly. In the ADL App, training videos for ADL activities and component training are available. Suitable activities are prescribed for both patients and caregivers are taught to use the ADL App and follow the training videos to implement their individualized home program. A daily reminder is set to prompt the patients to perform the training at home, and compliance to home training can be checked by the occupational therapists through the clinical management system (CMS).
Objectives :
The pilot use of the ADL App commenced in Occupational Therapy department, Tai Po Hospital since September 2019. This is a prospective study, aiming to evaluate the acceptance and usefulness of ADL App in geriatric population.
Methodology :
Feedback was collected from 15 patients before and after discharge. Feasibility of the training prescribed was assessed with a yes/no question. Willingness to use, difficulty in using and usefulness of the ADL App were rated on 10-point rating scales.
Result & Outcome :
All patients completed the pre-discharge survey and 13 completed the post-discharge survey. All agreed that the training prescribed was feasible. The mean score for willingness to use the ADL App was 6.9. The mean perceived difficulty reduced slightly from 3.9 to 3.5 after treatment, and the mean perceived usefulness increased from 6.6 to 7.6. These preliminary results reveal that the ADL App is a feasible intervention tool in which patients are generally willing to use. Initial feedbacks from patients reflect that the ADL App is easy to use and perceived to be useful by patients. Overall, the geriatric populations accepted the use of ADL App. Occupational therapists are encouraged to prescribe the ADL App more frequently to facilitate the continuity of patient care and training after patients are discharged. For further development of the ADL App, more interactive module design with better monitoring functions are recommended.
