Persian participation measures for adolescents: A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction Enhancing participation is the focus of occupational therapy. Comprehensive and accurate assessment ensures that clinicians can tailor an intervention to the client’s needs. This systematic review was completed to identify Persian adolescents’ participation measures and critically appraise them. It would be helpful in the selection of the most appropriate instrument to use in adolescent-related research and clinical practice. Method Ten bibliographic databases, four Iranian and six international, without year limits were searched up to June 2019. A systematic search was directed according to COSMIN guidelines for systematic reviews of patient-reported outcome measures and PRISMA guidelines (Systematic review registration: CRD42017073581). Results Seven measures were extracted from the articles. Reviewing the content and psychometric properties of the measures as well as the methodological quality of the studies indicated that the Modified Activity Questionnaire is the only measure with consistent and moderately reliable results. It measures adolescent participation in leisure activities but not all domains of participation. Conclusion There may be a growing need for adapting existing Persian measures or developing new ones based on specific age features related to puberty-stage alongside cultural, social and academic demands, which have a significant effect on adolescents’ participation in meaningful occupations. High methodological quality in designing such studies also has great importance.

Development and Validation of Iranian Adolescent’s Participation Assessment Tool

“…In comparison with other Participation Assessment Tools such as PEMCY (aged 5–17 years) (Coster et al, 2011) and Occupation Participation Sort: Adolescent and Young Adult (aged 13–25 years) (OPS) (Ediger and O’Day, 2011) both developed for disabled, IAPAT (aged 13–18 years) developed based on OTPF and assess all occupational areas of Iranian adolescents in any condition whether disable or not. Also, as recommended in previous studies (Joveini et al, 2020), it develops based on specific Iranian adolescents age range, 13–18 years old, characteristics and needs, and special characteristics of Iranian context such as religious and political social markers and educational system. This enables policymakers to monitor Iranian adolescent’s participation and make suitable decisions.…”

“…Differences in academic and sociopolitical systems in different countries also affect this issue (Chen and Lu, 2009; Flammer and Schaffner 2003; Hitoshi et al, 2003; Lee, 2003; Larson and Seepersad, 2003; Siew Foen et al, 2016). In Iran, according to the academic system in which high school starts at age 13 to 18, it is recommended that adolescents’ needs should be assessed in this age range (Joveini et al, 2020; Zareiyan et al, 2008).…”

“…On the other hand, none of them fully covers the age range of adolescence and cannot be used by the entire adolescent community. This issue shows insufficient knowledge of the participation of Iranian adolescents in various occupations according to the political, educational, and cultural systems governing Iranian society (Joveini et al, 2020).…”