How do assessments of activities of daily living address executive functions: A scoping review

ABSTRACT

Executive functions (EF) allow persons to adapt to situations arising in daily life and can be affected following acquired brain injury (ABI). Measuring the impact of EF impairments on the accomplishment of activities of daily living (ADL) requires specific assessment tools, but choosing the right tool may be difficult.

Purpose: To conduct a scoping review on how assessments of ADL address EF and EF impairments in persons with ABI.

Method: A scoping review of literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) published until August 2014 was conducted. Using a systematic procedure, literature was selected, results were charted, and tools were analysed with respect to their goals, underlying models, psychometric properties and applicability. The analysis also included how tools considered components of EF according to Lezak’s model.

Results: 12 tools, developed either to assess EF in ADL, independence in ADL considering EF or ADL capacities, were identified and analysed according to multiple criteria.

Conclusions: This review provides important information about existing tools to assist in tool selection and clinical decision-making related to ABI and EF.

KEYSWORDS:

• Acquired brain injury
• ecological assessment
• executive function
• everyday life
• activities of daily living
• independence

Acknowledgements

We thank Heather Owens for her help and for valuable comments about the manuscript and Myrian Grondin, librarian for her help with search strategies and EndNote. Imane Habi and Beatrice Glickman for the English corrections.

The first author received scholarship funding from “France Traumatisme Crânien-Société Française de Médecine Physique et de Réadaptation”, the “Fondation des Gueules Cassées”, the “Fond Européen et Francophone le Développement de la Recherche en Ergothérapie”, the “Région Ile de France” as well as from the Mission recherche de la direction de la recherche, des études, de l’évaluation et des statistiques (MiRe-DREES), the Caisse Nationale de Solidarité pour l’Autonomie (CNSA) and the Institut de Recherche en Santé Publique IReSP IReSP-11-HAND1-17 (France); as well as from the “Université de Montréal” and the “Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal” (Canada).

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. Note that Dutil is the designer of the ADL Profile and Chevignard, Pradat-Diehl & Poncet of Cooking Task (CT), but these authors do not receive royalties associated with the use of their tools.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in large part by the Association Réseau Traumatisme Crânien Ile-de-France (ARTC IDF), the Mission recherche de la direction de la recherche, des études, de l’évaluation et des statistiques (MiRe-DREES), the Caisse Nationale de Solidarité pour l’Autonomie (CNSA) and by the Institut de Recherche en Santé Publique (IReSP), France.