Background: Engaging in meaningful activities may provide health and well-being, but individuals living with mental illness face challenges achieving this in daily life. Stress-related illness is increasing in society and negatively affects the person’s ability to be active and experience well-being. In Sweden, treatment usually takes place in primary health care, where health-promoting, person-centred treatment, adapted to the individual's needs, is needed as part of integrated care. Photo-supported conversations, focusing on well-being (BeWell™), is a relatively new health-promoting treatment in primary health care, and its focus is on what contribute to increased well-being in everyday life, despite stress-related illness. BeWell™ consists of 12 individual sessions (in person or virtual) with an occupational therapist. The starting point for dialogues between patient and therapist is the patient’s own photographs related to their well-being. The intention is that the treatment would contribute to a sustainable daily life, in which the individual will cope with challenges, and believe in their abilities to a greater extent.

Aim: To explore and describe patients’ experiences of daily life, after having participated in the BeWell™.

Method: The study have a qualitative approach. Twenty-two women and four men (29–62 years), diagnosed with stress-related illness and having participated in BeWell™, were recruited. The individual interviews focused on their daily life and were carried out six months after completed treatment. The interviews will be analysed with thematic analysis.

Expected results: The results are expected to demonstrate the participants’ experiences of their daily life after participation in the health-promoting treatment and will provide valuable information from a longitudinal perspective.

Introduction:

Stress-related illnesses are increasing in society, impacting people’s abilities and well-being. In Sweden, treatment is provided in primary health care, but more treatment methods are needed. We have developed a new health-promoting treatment; photo-supported conversations about well-being (BeWell™).

Objectives:

BeWell™ consists of 12 sessions with an occupational therapist. The sessions are based on the patients' own photographs and reflections about well-being in their everyday lives. Previous results have shown improvements after participation and that occupational therapists consider the treatment useful. This study focused on the patient’s perspective.

The aim was to describe participating patients’ experiences of the new treatment BeWell™.

Methods:

A qualitative approach was used. The 35 participants (aged 29–62 years) in primary health care were diagnosed with stress-related illness. The interviews focused on the participants' experiences of BeWell™ and were conducted shortly after completing the treatment. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results:

Preliminary results describe how the combination of different parts in BeWell™ contributed to a better everyday life. Some participants have continued using photographs or other tools on their own after the treatment.

Significance to the Occupational Therapy Profession:

These results add to previous research, indicating that BeWell™ is useful in occupational therapy, since it was perceived positive by the patients

Vardagslivets aktiviteter liksom levnadsvanors stora betydelse för hälsa är aktuella ämnen. Här har arbetsterapeuter en mycket viktig roll, oavsett i vilken verksamhet de finns. Hälsosamma vanor, meningsfulla aktiviteter och balans i dessa har alltid varit viktiga delar i arbetsterapeuternas professionsutövning.Denna bok speglar både forskning som bedrivs av arbetsterapeuter och hur arbetsterapeuter arbetar i praxis. Innehållet ger exempel, genom hela livet och i mångahanda situationer, där betydelsen av vardagslivets aktiviteter för hälsa, välbefinnande och delaktighet framkommer. Syftet med boken är att ge kunskap om, och underlag för diskussioner om, hur arbetsterapeuter kan främja hälsa. Den riktar sig till studerande och yrkesverksamma arbetsterapeuter. Likaså kan beslutsfattare, chefer, politiker och yrkesverksamma i andra professioner ha stor behållning av innehållet.

Background: 

Extending the concept of work-life balance and recognising that many people’s lives cannot easily be divided into work and non-work life, Occupational Balance enables the exploration of a person’s satisfaction with the balance and variance of occupations in daily life at most contemporary levels.

Objective: 

To effectively measure Occupational Balance in the German-speaking population, this study developed a German version of the Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ11-G) by conducting a cross-sectional study involving translation, cultural adaptation and content validity evaluation.

Methods: 

A preliminary German version of the OBQ11 was developed based on Beaton’s guideline and then finalised after an online focus group (n = 7 occupational therapists; 5 women [71%]) to reach consensus on the relevance, comprehensibility and overall comprehensiveness of the items. We applied the framework method to analyse the focus group’s qualitative data and descriptive statistics to report the quantitative data.

Results: 

Overall, the experts rated all questionnaire items as “relevant” to “very relevant”, but eight of the eleven items were slightly adapted to improve comprehensibility, due to inconsistencies in terminology. Experts did not agree on whether the questionnaire fully covered the concept of Occupational Balance, with 57% of respondents agreeing and 43% disagreeing, suggesting that additional assessments should be applied when measuring Occupational Balance.

Conclusion: 

The German version of the OBQ11 has now been thoroughly translated, and further studies on its psychometric properties are needed to enhance its validity.

Background

Previous studies indicate that ambulance personnel have an increased risk of ill health. Shift work and time spent on physical behaviours during work and leisure are factors that could be related to health, however the research is limited. Thus, the aim of this study was to describe patterns of physical behaviours during and after work among Swedish ambulance personnel and to analyse the associations between physical behaviours and different work shifts.

Methods

In this observational study, the physical behaviours of 63 ambulance personnel were measured over seven days using two accelerometers. Accelerometer data was processed using the MATLAB program Acti4, to identify physical behaviours i.e. sleep, being sedentary, light physical activity (LPA), and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), during and after work. To determine the association between shift types (independent) and patterns of physical behaviours (dependent), a Multivariate Analysis of Variance was performed on data processed according to compositional data analysis.

Results

At work, the highest proportion of both MVPA and being sedentary occurred during day shifts, compared to night and 24-h shifts (MVPA: 7% vs 4% and 5%; sedentary time: 62% vs 44% and 54% respectively). Night and 24-h shifts included 31% and 18% sleep, respectively. During the after-work periods, the highest proportions of MVPA were observed after 24-h shifts (8%). Overall, there was no statistically significant difference in physical behaviours during work and after work for various shift types. However, in a sub-analysis restricted to night and 24-h shifts, a statistically significant association between shift type and composition of physical behaviours during work was observed (eta(2)(p) = 0.42, p < 0.001), with a lower proportion of sleep time relative to awake time during 24-h shifts compared to night shift (eta(2)(p) = 0.34, p < 0.001).

Conclusions

In general, ambulance personnel were physically active both during and after work. At the same time, work hours entailed a substantial amount of sedentary time. Shift type was not associated with the pattern of physical behaviours among ambulance personnel. However, during 24-h shift a lower proportion of the time was spent sleeping compared to during night shift. Studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm these results.

Introduction: Occupational balance is an important concept in occupational therapy. However, no validated Occupational balance assessments currently exist in Lithuania. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Lithuanian version of the Occupational Balance Questionnaire 11 (OBQ11-LT).

Method: A total of 127 healthy adults completed the OBQ11-LT to evaluate construct validity. Of these, 53 participants were randomly assigned to complete the questionnaire again after 7-10 days to assess test-retest reliability. Construct validity was examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Test-retest reliability was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for both total scores and individual items. Internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach's alpha.

Findings: The model demonstrated acceptable fit (chi(2)(45) = 719.79, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.933; TLI = 0.909; RMSEA = 0.106). The ICC between test and retest OBQ11-LT total score was 0.924. Total scores showed a significant statistical relationship (p < 0.01), indicating good reliability. Cronbach's alpha for the OBQ11-LT total score was 0.915, indicating acceptable internal consistency.

Conclusion: OBQ11-LT demonstrates good reliability and validity for assessing occupational balance in general populations. Its psychometric properties are suitable for practice and research, making it a valuable tool for studying occupational balance in similar contexts and broadening the research areas for Lithuanian occupational therapists.

Bakgrund/Syfte*: Aktivitetsbalans har visat sig relatera till hälsa och aktivitetsobalans till stress. Relationen mellan aktivitetsbalans och hälsoaspekter har dock ofta innefattat självskattning och få studier har inkluderat objektiva mått. Ett sätt att mäta stress över tid, på annat sätt än självskattning, är att mäta nivån av kortisol i hår (HCC).

Syftet med denna studie var att jämföra HCC hos ambulanspersonal med en populationsbaserad referensgrupp, analysera skillnader mellan män och kvinnor samt skillnader beroende på arbetsrelaterade faktorer.

Metod/Tillvägagångssätt*: Ambulanspersonal (28 kvinnor och 51 män) i en svensk region besvarade ett frågeformulär om olika arbetsrelaterade faktorer inklusive aktivitetsbalans. Därutöver analyserades en centimeter hår närmast hårbotten avseende HCC, för att mäta stress över den senaste månaden.

Resultat/Förväntat resultat*: Inga skillnader i HCC mellan ambulanspersonal och referensgruppen eller könsskillnader i HCC identifierades. Vidare sågs inga associationer mellan HCC och arbetsrelaterade faktorer.

Aktivitetsbalans var däremot positivt korrelerat med HCC (r_p=0,240; p=0,044) och associationen var signifikant efter justering för kön och ålder.

Slutsats/Praktisk tillämpning*: Studien ger ett något annorlunda resultat avseende relationen mellan aktivitetsbalans och stress när ett objektivt mått på stress, hårkortisol, används jämfört med självskattade mått. Korrelationen är svag och inga slutsatser kan dras men den indikerar att högre HCC, som mått på stress, associeras till bättre aktivitetsbalans.

På så sätt ger studien också en indikation på komplexiteten i relationen mellan aktiviteter och hälsa. Nya frågor väcks om relationen mellan vad vi tycker om våra aktiviteter och vad vi faktiskt gör. Fortsatt forskning behövs där både självskattade och objektiva mått används samtidigt. 

Bakgrund/Syfte*: Psykisk ohälsa, såsom stressrelaterad ohälsa, är ett växande hälsoproblem. Det finns behov av ytterligare insatser som främjar personens möjlighet att påverka den egen hälsan och välbefinnandet. En sådan hälsofrämjande behandlingsmetod är BeWell™, fotostödda samtal om välbefinnande, som syftar till att förbättra deltagarnas hälsa och välbefinnande ur deras eget perspektiv. Behandlingsmetoden genomförs av arbetsterapeuter och innebär 12 sessioner med fotostödda samtal. Dessa tar sin utgångspunkt i patienternas fotografier om det som relateras till välbefinnande och en dialog förs kring vad som bidrar till patientens välbefinnande. Syftet var att beskriva arbetsterapeuters erfarenheter av att använda BeWell™ med patienter som diagnostiserats med stressrelaterade sjukdomar i primärvården.

Metod/Tillvägagångssätt*: Studien hade en deskriptiv design, med kvalitativ och induktiv ansats. Individuella intervjuer, kompletterade med en fokusgruppsdiskussion användes för datainsamling. Deltagarna var sex arbetsterapeuter som använt BeWell™. Systematisk textkondensation användes för dataanalys.

Resultat/Förväntat resultat*: Preliminära resultat visade på tre huvudteman; Upptäcka välbefinnande genom bilder, Förbättra klientens egen väg mot välbefinnande och Bidra till eget välbefinnande. Arbetsterapeuterna upplevde att fotografiet hade stor betydelse för metoden. De ansåg att BeWell™ hade ett tydligt fokus på välbefinnande och att patienterna själva, med stöd av arbetsterapeuterna, kunde göra förändringar i vardagen för att öka sitt välbefinnande. Arbetsterapeuterna tyckte också själva om att använda BeWell™ och ansåg att metoden passade deras profession.

Slutsats/Praktisk tillämpning*: BeWell™ med stöd av fotografier upplevdes bidra till patientens välbefinnande, men bidrog även till arbetsterapeutens eget välmående. Metoden passar väl att användas av arbetsterapeuter i primärvård.