Predictors of Occupational Dysfunction in Community-Dwelling Female Older Adults

Abstract

Several preventive occupational therapy interventions have been reported as beneficial for communitydwelling older adults [1][2][3][4]; these are worth noting as the world's population ages rapidly. Occupational dysfunction (OD), which can be experienced despite the absence of an apparent medical diagnosis or disability [5], may be a new health indicator for community-dwelling older adults, who are the primary clients of preventive occupational therapy.OD was a concept proposed by Kielhofner [6, 7] in the Model of Human Occupation and is defined as a negative experience arising from the inability to engage in daily activities properly. OD may be the result of disturbing dynamic interaction among multiple factors that generate occupational engagement. Teraoka et al.[8] identified the four most common experiences in OD: occupational marginalization, imbalance, alienation, and deprivation. Occupational marginalization is defined as not having the opportunity to engage in desired daily activities, occupational imbalance describes a loss of balance in engagement in daily activities, occupational alienation occurs when individual needs relating to daily