ABSTRACT

Objective: We developed an occupational therapy intervention terminology for dementia and proved appropriate guidelines to facilitate valid interdisciplinary communication, with the aim of compatible documentation. Methods: Thirty occupational therapists and professors with more than 5 years of clinical experience were selected as a group of experts to investigate interventional actions and recorded terminology. A systemic review and the investigated terms were classified with reference to ICF and OTPF-3, and intervention examples were presented based on three axes (objects, methods, and actions) of ICHI. The validity and importance of these terms were investigated for 48 dementia-related institutions. Results: Intervention terminologies were classified into several different areas such as the body function, activity and participation, and environmental factors. Body functions ware classified into mental, sensory, voice, cardiovascular and respiratory, swallowing, neuromuscular skeletal, and movement-related functions. Activities and participation were classified into learning and applying knowledge, general tasks and demands, communication, mobility, self-care, domestic life, interpersonal interactions and relationships, communities, and social and civic life. Environmental factors were classified into products and technology, the natural environment and human-made changes to the environment, support and relationships, attitudes, service systems, and policies. The overall validation results of the intervention terminology were body function, 0.77; activity & participation, 0.81; environmental factors, 0.64; and total, 0.73. In addition, the importance was averaged at 3.89 ± 0.74. There were no significant differences in validity and importance between the job groups. Dementia-related center and professor-administrative groups showed that the awareness of environmental factors in the intervention of NCD patients decreased. Conclusion: ‘Occupational therapy intervention terminologies for NCD patients’ will be available as a reasonable guide for various dementia-related agencies. In the future, these terminologies can be used to document occupational therapy that incorporates body functions, activities and participation, and environmental factors. We should continue to make an effort to revise it according to the changes over time.