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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Catherine A. Ipsen, MA, Nancy L. Arnold, PhD, and Tom W. Seekins, PhD. Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities, University of Montana, 52 Corbin Hall, Missoula, MT 59812, 406-243-4562, ipsen@ruralinstitute.umt.edu

The purpose of this study was to begin development of a dynamic measure of participation that incorporates environmental context into participation or activity related outcomes. Participation has been cited increasingly as an important outcome variable for people with disabilities, but efforts have not sufficiently operationalized this construct or captured the interactive nature between participation and environment. This presentation describes the development of a dynamic measure of participation that uses the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) as the foundational framework and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) as the data collection methodology. One of the substantial advantages of using EMA is that recall bias is reduced (or eliminated). Personal data assistants (pdas) were programmed to prompt pilot participants (n=5) to complete a brief questionnaire about current participation. Participants were prompted at six points throughout the day (across 7 weeks of data collection) for a total of 294 data input episodes per participant. Overall, participants reported greater community connectedness and fulfillment when they spent time with others (vs. alone), were outside the home, and were not experiencing barriers or secondary conditions. Type of activity (such as employment, leisure, or self-care) did not explain the variance in feelings of community connectedness and fulfillment.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will learn about efforts to define and measure participation of people with disabilities.

Keywords: Community Participation,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation