The Feasibility of the Thai Sensory Profile Assessment Tool (TSPA) for Classifying the participants for Mind-Body intervention

Abstract

Background: The Thai Sensory Profile Assessment Tool (TSPA) is a tool for measuring individual effects of sensory stimuli events in daily life. The tool is divided into sensory preference, which is relatively stable and formulated from personal experience, and sensory threshold, which is more labile that determines the intensity of sensory perception. A high sensory threshold person would perceive less intensity than those with a low threshold. The earlier study found that TSPA has acceptable validity and reliability in classifying sensory processing patterns. Objective: The study aims to examine the feasibility and interpretability of TSPA for classifying sensory patterns of participants who attend the Mindfulness-Based Flow Practice (MBFP) and Relax On-site program. We hypothesize that different sensory processing patterns may influence MBFP and Relax On-site program response. Materials and methods: This study is a part of a clinical trial project. The participants were 20 volunteers who are healthy nursing staff working in a university hospital. Each participant was self-tested by TSPA before the intervention, either relaxation on-site or MBFP in the residential retreat program. The effect of MBFP or relaxation on-site was measured quantitatively by the change of serum morning cortisol before and after the intervention and qualitatively from satisfaction interviews after the intervention. Results: The TSPA assessment takes time average of 5 minutes. We classified participants by TSPA pattern into three groups by the sensory preference, including, 1) Balanced majority (14/20) have a moderate sensory preference and threshold, 2) low sensory preference for taste and smell (3/20), and 3) high sensory preference for sight smell and movement (3/20). At the same time, most participants show higher cortisol after relaxation on-site and decreased cortisol after MBFP. We found people with low smell sensory preference, low smell sensory threshold, high sensory preference insight, and movement with moderate threshold showed a different response. Conclusions: This pilot study showed that TSPA is not a time-consuming tool. It can be a feasible tool for assessing the sensory preference of the participants to match the health promotion modalities appropriately. However, it needs a larger sample to prove this hypothesis. Keywords: Thai Sensory Profile Assessment Tool (TSPA), sensory preferences, sensory thresholds, cortisol, satisfaction, Mindfulness-Based Flow Practice.

Development of Thai Sensory Patterns Assessment Tool for Children Aged 3–12 Years: Caregiver-Version

“…Further, Thai research indicates that the TSPA tool for adolescents and adults can provide a feasible tool for identifying sensory preferences to match health promotion modalities appropriately. The previous study classified the level of the participants’ sensory preferences concerning their cortisol levels by using Mindfulness-Based Flow Practice (MBFP) [ 19 ]. It is also a TSPA tool that is used to evaluate the process for planning healthcare services in clinical and community settings.…”