Everyday technologies and public space participation among people with and without dementia

Abstract

Background. Occupational therapists support Everyday Technology use however it is necessary to consider the challenges that people with dementia encounter with Everyday Technologies when participating in various places within public space. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to explore stability and change in participation in places visited within public space, in relation to the relevance of Everyday Technologies used within public space. Method. People with dementia (n=35) and people with no known cognitive impairment (n=34) were interviewed using the Participation in ACTivities and Places OUTside Home Questionnaire and the Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire. Data analysis used modern and classical test theory. Findings. Both samples participated in places within public space however participation and relevance of Everyday Technologies was significantly lower for the dementia group. Implications. To enable participation, occupational therapists need to be aware of challenges that technologies and places within public space present to people with dementia.

Social Participation in Relation to Technology Use and Social Deprivation: A Mixed Methods Study Among Older People with and without Dementia

“…Furthermore, participants with dementia showed a greater decrease between past and present social participation than participants without dementia. This corroborates earlier research among Swedish [20] and Swiss samples [21] and motivates the study's focus on social participation. The study conceptualizes mainstream ETs as technologies that can be assistive but also inhibitive to social participation, among older people with and without dementia.…”

Kaleidoscopic associations between life outside home and the technological environment that shape occupational injustice as revealed through cross-sectional statistical modelling

“…Additionally, ability to use ET correlated strongly with the amount of information and communication ETs (ICTs) reported relevant only among a group with mild stage dementia and not at all among the control group (Wallcook et al, 2019). Subsequently, a lesser amount of ETs used out of home (i.e., smartphones, computers, card payment machines, ticket machines, lift access, keypads) were shown to be relevant to a group of people with dementia in comparison to controls, and this coincided with going to significantly fewer places outside home (Gaber et al, 2019). These comparisons and relations highlight how the technological environment may be contributing to occupational injustice in the lives of people with dementia.…”

“…Consequently, the constitution of places outside home and the interactions with, and influences of technology on, occupation may be expected to vary between urban and rural environments. While the physical environment and technological environment outside home have together received attention (Brittain et al, 2010;Gaber et al, 2019;Lindqvist et al, 2018), most studies take place in urban contexts with little known about how these environments entwine in rural locations.…”

“…However, there may be a methodological reason for this since the choice of an unconditional regression model may have led to an underestimation of the influence of dementia on the outcome (Kuo et al, 2018). Several studies have explored the impact of dementia upon people's perceptions of life outside their homes and the interplay with technology (Brittain et al, 2010;Gaber et al, 2019;Lindqvist et al, 2018), suggesting that this is an important consideration. Fewer years of education have been linked to incidence of dementia in many studies (Sharp & Gatz, 2011) however, education also relates to socioeconomic status (Sirin, 2005), and the educational attainment of a localised population is bound within the IMD (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2015).…”

“…Fewer years of education have been linked to incidence of dementia in many studies (Sharp & Gatz, 2011) however, education also relates to socioeconomic status (Sirin, 2005), and the educational attainment of a localised population is bound within the IMD (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2015). Therefore, the potential influence of both diagnosis and education on the number of places that individual older adults go to should not be ruled out, even if these factors may tend to shape patterns of places, rather than the amount (Gaber et al, 2019).…”