Modification of the assessment of life habits (LIFE-Hm) to consider personalized satisfaction with participation in activities and roles: results from a construct validity study with older adults

Abstract

Purpose: Participation, defined as a person’s involvement in activities and roles, is a primary intervention goal in rehabilitation. To achieve client-centered practice, rehabilitation professionals need to go beyond objective accomplishment criteria and consider satisfaction with and the importance of participation in activities and roles. To our knowledge, no instrument considers accomplishment, satisfaction and importance of activities and roles, and allows numerical scoring and comparison. The objectives of this study were to modify the Assessment of Life Habits questionnaire (LIFE-Hm) to consider personalized satisfaction (satisfaction weighted by importance) with participation in activities and roles, and to: (1) examine its convergent validity with quality of life (QOL) and (2) compare the associations between QOL on the one hand and, satisfaction (LIFE-H) and personalized satisfaction (LIFE-Hm) with participation on the other. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 84 older adults, average age 76 years, with different functional autonomy levels. Results: Quality of life was associated with personalized satisfaction for all categories of activities and roles (r = 0.45 to 0.75; p < 0.001). These associations differed significantly from the associations with satisfaction for the “housing”, “mobility” and “responsibilities” categories (p = 0.04 to 0.0047). Conclusions: This study found good construct validity of the LIFE-Hm with QOL. Personalization can add value in achieving client-centered practice.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• The LIFE-Hm becomes the first instrument available in English and French that allows comparison between individuals and informs rehabilitation professionals about the level of accomplishment, satisfaction and personalized satisfaction with participation in activities and roles.

• Personalized satisfaction can add value in achieving client-centered practice as it considers not only how satisfying activities and roles are for the person, but also the importance that these activities and roles have for her/him.

• The LIFE-Hm offers the advantage of systematically identifying activities and roles which are not satisfactory but are important for the client and have the potential to be improved (lower accomplishment level).

• LIFE-H
• older adults
• participation

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the study participants as well as Lise Trottier, the statistician who contributed to the statistical analysis.