The Revised Observed Tasks of Daily Living: A Performance-Based Assessment of Everyday Problem Solving in Older Adults

Abstract

The Revised Observed Tasks of Daily Living (OTDL-R), a performance-based test of everyday problem solving, was administered to a sample of community-dwelling older adults. The OTDL-R included nine tasks, representing medication use, telephone use, and financial management. The OTDL-R had a desirable range of difficulty and satisfactory internal consistency and showed a relatively invariant pattern of relations between measured tasks and the underlying latent dimensions they represent across White and non-White subsamples. The OTDL-R also correlated significantly with age, education, self-rated health, a paper-and-pencil measure of everyday problem solving, and measures of basic cognitive functioning. Thus, the OTDL-R is a reliable and valid objective measure of everyday problem solving that has great practical utility for assessing performance in diverse populations.

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“…studies by Allaire and Marsiske (1999), Diehl et al (2005), and Whitfield et al (1999) indicate that these problemsolving measures have similar psychometric properties and age trends in African-American samples.…”

“…Chen & Sun, 2003;Hershey & Farrell, 1999;Diehl et al, 2005 Social: management of personal relationships, collaboration, coping with conflicts. Berg et al, 1998;Blanchard-Fields, 1986;Crawford & Channon, 2002 Type Performance-based, paper and pencil: Participants actually solve the problem for the investigator (e.g., compare two brands) and record their answer.…”

“…Allaire & Marsiske, 1999;Diehl et al, 2005;Meyer et al, 1995;Willis, 1996b Ill-structured: Brief narrative vignettes are presented describing dilemmas or situations where available means or solution goals may not be explicit (e.g., ''A couple moves to a new town; how should they continue to associate with people?''). Artistico, Cervone, & Pezzuti, 2003;Berg et al, 1998;Blanchard-Fields, Stein, & Watson, 2004;Denney & Pearce, 1989 Breadth of domains Single-domain studies: All problems fall within a single category or domain (e.g., medication use, financial decisions, selecting a car).…”

Embedded assessment of aging adults: A concept validation with stakeholders

“…Self-report and caregiver-report questionnaires are a starting point for collecting this information, but they can be rife with biases and inaccuracies [1] [2]. In the clinical setting, doctors and occupational therapists can use performance-based testing instruments (such as [8][9] [10]) by having patients perform tasks in the presence of a trained observer either in the clinic or at home. The observer's goal is to detect in which low-level steps of the IADL task the patient is struggling and provide appropriate interventions.…”

Learning Activity Models for Multiple Agents in a Smart Space

“…Smart homes are often targeted towards recognizing and assisting with the Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) that the medical community uses to categorize levels of healthy behavior in the home [5,16,20]. The ability of smart homes to help disabled and elderly individuals to continue to operate in the familiar and safe environment is one of the greatest reasons for their continued development.…”