Measurement of older adults’ performance in digital technology-mediated occupations and management of digital technology

Abstract

Introduction Supporting older adults’ digital engagement requires an understanding of how occupational performance and technology use are related, as well as having a range of methods that can assist occupational therapists while observing occupational performance and management of technology. The study objectives were to investigate how older adults’ ability to perform digital technology-mediated occupations and ability to manage digital technology could be measured and to examine the association between these two abilities. Method Twenty-five older adults were observed performing digital technology-mediated occupations and managing digital technologies, and were scored on two instruments: the Assessment of Computer-Related Skills and the Management of Everyday Technology Assessment. FACETS was used to generate respective multifaceted Rasch measurement models for scores on the instruments. The Spearman correlation test was used to investigate correlation between person ability measures from respective Rasch models of the instruments. Results The results include item, occupation, and technology difficulty estimates, as well as person ability measures that could illustrate older adults’ ability to perform occupations and to manage technology. There is also a strong positive correlation between these abilities. Conclusion Insight into an older person’s ability to manage technology can provide information about his or her ability to perform digital technology-mediated occupations and vice versa.

Presenting an analytic framework facilitating a situationally oriented analysis of the use of digital technology for engagement in occupation

“…Although a large body of occupational science research has applied and discussed a transactional perspective, we see, as argued in the introduction, a need to operationalise a transactional perspective on occupation within the occupational science and occupational therapy literature. This perspective is supported by recent research, which resorts to a more application-oriented approach in the use of a transactional perspective on occupation, for example within occupational therapy practice models [58], in relation to community change [59], as an element in occupational therapy education [60] and in relation to measurement of performance in digitally mediated occupations [61]. This study contributes with an example that brings situational orientation to a practical level by analysing aspects of engagement in occupation from a transactional perspective.…”

“…To understand technology usage, we must therefore focus on the situational aspects that affect technology usage. This is important to avoid that occupations become more difficult to engage in for certain groups of citizens than for others if digitalisation force changes to the requirements to engage in occupations [61]. We therefore argue for a need for both a methodological and theoretical approach to research and the need to understand the use of DT for engagement in occupation from an embedded perspective.…”

Systematic and Collaborative Review of E-health Ecological Networks (SCREEN) Model

“…The model identifies and evaluates elements (person, environment, and occupation) in the client and therapist that may influence the success of Ehealth service delivery. 9,10 Factors of the PEO of both the therapist and the client were formulated using the studies by Fischl et al 11 and Sy et al 5 as reference. Both studies were used as a basis for identifying the factors of the domains presented in the SCREEN Both studies' constructs and key points supported the conceptual model and decision tree in determining the factors that may affect the therapist and client's engagement in the E-health practice.…”

“…The SCREEN model reviewed articles and conceptual models that will serve as the foundational theoretical bases for the conceptualization of the model. 5,9,11,12…”

Pre-Service Teachers’ Instructional Innovation Capabilities: A Many-Faceted Rasch Model Analysis

“…Engelhard (1992) points out that the Rasch model can be applied to any experimental setting to help researchers compare certain attributes or characteristics of raters and criteria. At present, MFRM has been widely used to evaluate referee scoring in international competitions, students’ performance in school subjects, professional interviews, medical nursing, and other fields (Boone et al, 2016; Chapman et al, 2013; Fischl et al, 2021; Han, 2015). Hence, it is appropriate to apply MFRM to evaluate pre-service teachers’ ability to innovate in their teaching.…”