Mental status and occupational therapy outcome in teaching dressing skills to the disabled elderly

Abstract

Two groups of elderly disabled patients referred to an occupational therapy (OT) department, one of higher and one of impaired cognitive status, defined by the mini-mental state examination (MMS), were assessed before and after one month's OT to see if mental status predicted improvement in dressing skills. The Kuriansky Activities of Daily Living performance test (KPT), the Set test (ST) and a specially designed dressing skills task (DST) were administered before and after treatment. Cognitive status as measured by the MMS and the ST were related to the global measure of activities of daily living (KPT) before treatment but not to the specific dressing skills task. There was no significant relationship between cognitive status and OT outcome either in terms of dressing, KPT performance or discharge. The therapist's prediction of outcome at the initial assessment was accurate. A subsidiary study found that all patients entering the hospital over a six week period, likely to benefit from OT were in fact referred.