A Qualitative Study on the Practice Structure of Home-Based Occupational Therapy for the Realisation of Daily Living Activities in the Elderly: Promoting Co-Operative Construction of the Life Performance

Abstract

We aimed to clarify intervention processes for facilitating patients’ living activities by understanding the practical structure of home­based occupational therapy (OT). Study participants were occupational therapists with at least three years of home­based OT experience. Data analysis was based on the grounded theory. For categorisation, MAXQDA 10 was used to conduct continuous comparative analysis. Analysis resulted in the following categories: 1,572 text segments, 195 labels, 40 small categories, 15 medium categories and 6 large categories. The large categories were (a) identifying unique living activities, (b) analysing and predicting living activities, (c) employing practices to confront living activities, (d) creating an environment that fosters living activities, (e) implementing independent living activities and (f) co­operating to realise living activities. Occupational therapists used patients’ living spaces to support them in terms of independently performing living activities, accumulating living activity experience in familiar homes and com­