Quantifying the effect of home visit occupational therapy on the quality of life of elderly individuals

Purpose: Japan is now the world's first ‘super-ageing’ society. We analysed the effect of occupational therapy (OT) sessions in addressing issues related to the elderly population, in comparison with other services.Methods: We studied 136 elderly patients receiving at-home care. Seventy-four patients received weekly OT and 62 did not. We assessed quality of life (QOL) and its trajectory over 1 year using the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGC) to quantify changes in QOL and the Function Independence Measure (FIM) to measure changes in activities of daily living. Results: Patient progress fell within five different trajectories, which was influenced by psychosocial factors. OT correlated with significantly greater improvement in PGC and FIM scores than other home care services.Conclusion: There is a significant benefit associated with OT and is expected to become increasingly more important in the growing elderly population. Tailoring of OT will be required to benefit those trajectory groups that showed unsatisfactory outcomes.