Occupational balance in people with depression and/or anxiety disorders before and after an occupational therapy intervention

Background: Depression and anxiety are common disorders affecting everyday occupations. This ongoing study aims to describe occupational balance in participants, suffering from depression and/or anxiety, before and after... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
Depression and anxiety are common disorders affecting everyday occupations. This ongoing study aims to describe occupational balance in participants, suffering from depression and/or anxiety, before and after participation in an occupational therapy intervention.

Method:
The study is a randomized clinical trial, including three Swedish counties. Totally, 130 participants having depression and/or anxiety, in working age will be included (currently, 110 are included). The participants are randomized to intervention, the Tree Theme Method (Gunnarsson & Eklund, 2009) or control, i.e. occupational therapy as usual. At baseline and three times after the intervention, they answer a comprehensive questionnaire including the Occupational Balance Questionnaire (Wagman & Håkansson, 2014). Data will be analysed with non-parametric statistics.

Results:
Preliminary results show low occupational balance at baseline. The results are expected to show if occupational balance increases after an occupational therapy intervention, addressing everyday occupations.

Conclusion:
The results will provide information about occupational balance before and after an intervention.

Application to Practice:
The results will be useful for occupational therapists working with this client group.

References
Gunnarsson, AB., & Eklund, M. (2009). The Tree Theme Method as an intervention in psychosocial occupational therapy: Client acceptability and outcomes. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 56:167-176.
Wagman, P., & Håkansson, C. (2014). Introducing the Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ). Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 21(3):227-231.

Financial support by Region Kronoberg, Southern Health Care Region and the Medical Research Council of Southeast Sweden are gratefully acknowledged.