Exploration of an assessment tool developed for community-based organizations to evaluate participation among persons aging with physical disability

Research Objectives: To evaluate a set of 9 activity domain measures to broadly assess community participation and change in participation over time for persons aging with disability.

Design: A cohort study with repeated measures three times annually (T1, T2, T3) between 2019-2022.

Setting: The general community

Participants: A community-based sample (N=323) of persons ages 45-65 responded to a survey. The cohort is majority female (68.7%) and single (61.9%), and over one-third (34.3%) is non-White.

Interventions: Not applicable

Main Outcome Measures: Nine activity domain measures were developed based on extant research and evaluated with assistance from community-based support service providers. For each activity domain, 5 questions were asked regarding participation in the domains of activities and the quality of participation (satisfaction with time spent, changes in participation, and barriers and facilitators of participation). Participants were asked if they thought changes were attributable to aging, the COVID pandemic, or other factors.

Results: Findings showed varying levels of participation across the 9 activity domains, with the lowest participation rate for employment and the highest participation rates for personal leisure and managing medications across T1, T2, and T3. Participants wished they spent more time engaging in exercise, employment, exterior and interior chores, community leisure, social activities, and civic and religious activities and less time managing medical conditions, doing interior chores, and engaging in leisure at home. Change in participation over the 3-year period was limited; most change was reported as activity reduction. In general, respondents indicated that reduction was due to their aging or the COVID-19 pandemic. Personal assistance, transportation, environmental modifications, and improved health were identified as factors needed to help increase participation levels.

Conclusions: Characterizing participation is an important element of delivering effective community-based care. We concluded that the activity domain measures demonstrated efficiency in identifying participation rates and change. Community-based organizations may deem them useful for assessing support and service needs to facilitate participation.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts to disclose