Occupational performance and prioritized problematic everyday occupations among people with advanced cancer living alone versus living with someone

Abstract

Background

People living at home with advanced cancer wish to maintain and preserve domestic life, but they experience several barriers in their everyday occupations and thereby occupational performance. There is little knowledge of these barriers experienced by people living alone versus people living with someone.

Objective/Aim

To investigate differences in self-perceived occupational performance and the prioritisation of getting self-reported problematic everyday occupations solved among people with advanced cancer, taking living status into consideration.

Method

A cross-sectional study using baseline data from an RCT including 174 participants with advanced cancer living at home. Difficulty and priorisation of everyday occupations were assessed using the Individually Prioritised Problem Assessment (IPPA).

Results

In total, 731 problematic everyday occupations were reported, mainly related to the categories of housework, self-care and leisure.

Conclusions/significance

Overall, no statistically significant difference in self-reported occupational performance was found. However, people living alone perceived statistically significantly more frequently showering/bathing and doing laundry as difficult and therefore important to address. In contrast, people living with someone prioritised social interaction and home maintenance statistically significantly more frequently.

Keywords:

• Neoplasm
• living at home
• occupational therapy
• palliation
• independent living

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the participants in the study as well as the occupational therapists involved in the data collection.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or publication of this article: The TrygFonden and the Danish Cancer Society [R53-A2783], the University of Southern Denmark, the Danish Association of Occupational Therapists [FF 2 14−3], and the Region of Southern Denmark [15/23775] funded the study.