Purpose: To describe how managers of employees on sick-leave, due to chronic pain conditions, experience participating in a three-party meeting using the Demand and Ability Protocol (DAP) in the return-to-work process.

Materials and methods: This study is based on individual semi-structured interviews with 17 managers of employees with chronic pain. Interviews were conducted after participating in a three-party meeting including the employee, manager, and a representative from the rehabilitation team. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis with an inductive approach.

Results: Two main themes were identified–“to converse with a clear structure and setup” and “to be involved in the employee’s rehabilitation.” The first theme describe experiences from the conversation, and the second theme reflected the managers’ insights when being involved in the employee’s rehabilitation. The themes comprise 11 sub-themes describing how the DAP conversation and the manager′s involvement in the rehabilitation may influence the manager, the manager-employee relationship, and the organization.

Conclusions: This study show, from a manager's perspective, how having a dialogue with a clear structure and an active involvement in the employee’s rehabilitation may be beneficial for the manager-employee relationship. Insights from participating in the DAP may also be beneficial for the organization.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

* A structured dialogue between the employee, employer, and rehabilitation supports the return to work (RTW) process

* A structured dialogue and collaboration may strengthen the relationship between the manager and employee

* An active engagement of managers in the employeès RTW process is beneficial for the manager-employee relationship, and for the organisation

* Healthcare professionals should collaborate with the workplace to promote participation of managers. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This article elucidates Somali women's experiences of cooking and meals after immigration to Sweden. Six Somali women participated in repeated focus group interviews. Content analysis of the interviews resulted in four themes: change in routines and content of the daily meals, changed experiences related to cooking and shopping for groceries, the social dimensions in food-related occupations, and change of identity and roles. According to the women, variety of factors related to their life in Sweden had led to changes in their food occupations and meals: environmental changes, societal factors and the fact that the women secured employment. Although their new focus on employment led to altered responsibility and time for the cooking, foodrelated occupations remained important for the creation of identity and the maintenance of the family. This study may inform the development of strategies to restrict the negative impacts of immigration on Somali women's health. Future research will increase understandings of the relationships between food-related occupations and women's roles, identity and health. © 2013 The Journal of Occupational Science Incorporated.

The aim was to investigate how patients in a clinical setting, combining acute stroke care and rehabilitation, perceived the value and meaning attached to a commonly used instrumental occupation, namely "Brewing coffee and making an open-face cheese sandwich with sliced vegetable". Another aim was to validate the ValMO model, proposing that value and meaning are related phenomena. Upon performing the occupation, 38 participants answered questionnaires concerning perceived meaning and occupational value. The results showed that the occupation was highly valued by the participants and that it was perceived as meaningful. No age or gender differences were found. The findings confirmed the proposed link between value and meaning. In conclusion, a commonly used and supposedly meaningful occupation was indeed found to be valued and meaningful by the patients and the findings validated the targeted aspects of the ValMO model. This study was unique in its focus on value and meaning in a clinical context. Futures studies should clarify if the link between meaningful occupation and well-being, which has been shown in many studies of everyday situations and is another of the assumptions in the ValMO model, can be proved in clinical contexts as well. © 2010 Informa UK Ltd.

The aim of this study was to identify characteristics of temporal patterns of daily occupations that could be related to high and low subjective health among older adults in Northern Sweden. A cross-sectional design imprinted by time-geographic methodology was used and participants 70 years and older were purposively selected and divided into groups of high and low health using the SoC-29 and SF-36 questionnaires. Daily occupations data were registered and analysed using VISUAL Time-PAcTS and related to health conditions using SPSS. The results showed that the participants in the high- and low-health groups showed similar patterns of participation in occupations during the 24-hour sequences describing their daily routines. Some differences in patterns of frequency and duration of occupations were shown between health groups during the 24-hour sequences as well as within six intervals. The low-health group showed higher frequencies and longer durations for “care for oneself” and “reflection and recreation” occupations and lower for “house-keeping” and “procure and prepare food” occupations compared to the high-health groups. There were few significant differences between the high- and low-health groups' mean durations for occupations. The results of this study could contribute to the support and assistance of occupations of older adults in society. © 2014 The Journal of Occupational Science Incorporated.

OBJECTIVE: The outcomes, in terms of quality of life and satisfaction with rehabilitation, of the 16-week Redesigning Daily Occupations (ReDO) programme as a work rehabilitation method for women with stress-related disorders was evaluated. It was hypothesised that, compared to women who got Care as Usual (CAU), the ReDO group would improve their quality of life and self-mastery more, and that those differences would prevail at follow-ups after 6 and 12 months. Another hypothesis was that the ReDO group would be more satisfied than the CAU group with the rehabilitation received. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-two women were recruited to the ReDO intervention and a matched comparison group got CAU. METHODS: The data consisted of self-ratings of quality of life, self-mastery and satisfaction with the work rehabilitation received. RESULTS: The first hypothesis was only partially verified. No general group differences were identified, but closer examination indicated different trajectories in the two groups. There was an increase in quality of life in the ReDO group from baseline to completion of the work rehabilitation, and further increase at the six-month follow-up, while the quality of life in the CAU group was stable over time. Regarding self-mastery there was an increase from baseline to completed rehabilitation in the ReDO group but a pronounced decrease in the CAU group. Thereafter the group differences levelled out. The second hypothesis was verified. The ratings of client satisfaction were considerably higher in the ReDO group. CONCLUSION: The ReDO seems a promising work rehabilitation method for strengthening quality of life and self-mastery for the target group. Future research should include larger groups and be based on randomised controlled designs. © 2013 - IOS Press and the authors.

There is a scarcity of rehabilitation methods for people with stress-related disorders that are effective in terms of return to work and reducing sick leave. This chapter describes the Redesigning Daily Occupations (ReDO^TM) program for women with stress-related disorders, the development, its main principles, and primary and secondary outcomes. The ReDO^TM program, which addresses people’s whole repertoire of everyday occupations, was effective in the primary healthcare context, compared to traditional rehabilitation provided by the Social Insurance Offices. Further research is needed, however, to establish a firm evidence base for the ReDO^TM intervention. © Springer Internatinal Publishing Switzerland 2015.

Aims: The aim was to (i) assess the outcomes of the 16-week Redesigning Daily Occupations (ReDO) programme for women on sick leave due to stress-related disorders, in terms of occupational value, satisfaction with everyday occupations, and participation level; (ii) investigate the relationships between those outcomes and return-to-work rate. Methods: A total of 42 women receiving ReDO and 42 receiving care as usual (CAU) were included in a matched-control study with measurements before and after the rehabilitation. Seventy-eight participated on both occasions. They completed self-report questionnaires regarding the aforementioned outcomes. Return-to-work data were obtained from the registers of the Social Insurance Offices. Results: Increases in concrete, symbolic, and self-reward values were found in both groups, but no statistically significant difference between the groups was demonstrated. The ReDO group improved more than the CAU group, however, on satisfaction with everyday occupations and participation level. Occupational value, but not satisfaction with everyday occupations, was related to return to work. Conclusions: Everyday occupations were shown to be relevant outcomes after work rehabilitation and could play an important role in future development of profession-specific evidence of occupational therapy. Further support was obtained for viewing occupational value and satisfaction with everyday occupations as theoretically distinct phenomena. © 2014 Informa Healthcare.

Background: Mastery refers to the degree to which people perceive that they can control factors that influence their life situation, and has been found important for people's quality of life and well-being. It is thus essential to be able to measure mastery in a valid and reliable way. Aim: This study aimed at using the Rasch measurement model to investigate the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Pearlin Mastery Scale (Mastery-S). Methods: A sample of 300 healthy individuals and 278 persons with mental illness responded to the Mastery-S. Item responses were Rasch analysed regarding model fit, response category functioning, differential item functioning (DIF) and targeting, using the partial credit model. Results: The Mastery-S items represented a logical continuum of the measured construct but one item displayed misfit. Reliability (Person Separation Index) was 0.7. The response categories did not work as expected in three items, which could be corrected for by collapsing categories. Three items displayed DIF between the two subsamples, which caused a bias when comparing mastery levels between subsamples, suggesting the Mastery-S is not truly generic. Conclusions: The Mastery-S may be used to obtain valid and reliable data, but some precautions should be made. If used to compare groups, new analyses of DIF should first be made. Users of the scale should also consider exempting item 6 from the scale and analyse it as a separate item. Finally, rewording of response categories should be considered in order to make them more distinct and thereby improve score reliability.

This study investigated how temporal occupational patterns, operationalized as time use and daily rhythm, are related to occupational balance, in terms of the value and satisfaction that people with persistent mental illness derive from daily occupations. The respondents, 103 individuals visiting an outpatient psychosis unit, completed a time-use diary and questionnaires targeting occupational value and satisfaction. Spending more total time in non-rest occupations (TTNR), in the categories of self-care/maintenance, work/education and play/leisure, was related to perceiving more concrete value, such as making something or learning new things. TTNR was also related to symbolic and self-reward value and to having satisfying daily occupations. A subgroup with a daily rhythm that meant being active during the day and sleeping at night time perceived more symbolic value and greater satisfaction with their daily occupations than another characterized by low activity during the day and having turned the clock around by mostly sleeping and resting during the day. Temporal occupational patterns seemed important for perceived occupational value and satisfaction with daily occupations, seen as facets of occupational balance, and a spiral type of relationship was assumed. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose. The study compared the perceived value of occupation among a sample of individuals with long-term mental illness to a sample of people not diagnosed with mental illness. As well, it investigated whether diagnostic and demographic factors were related to perceived occupational value among the individuals with mental illness. Finally, the study examined the relationship between occupational value and ratings of health and well-being. Method. One hundred and three individuals with mental illness and 28 healthy individuals were recruited for the study. Results. Overall occupational value among the individuals diagnosed with mental illness differed only marginally from the healthy group, indicating that perceived occupational value was by and large not related to mental illness. Among the individuals with mental illness, having children living at home was related to occupational value. There were moderate to strong associations between occupational value and measures of health and well-being. Practice Implications. This study provides important insights into occupational value among individuals with persistent mental health problems and provides some preliminary evidence in support of the Value, Meaning and Occupation Model. © CAOT PUBLICATIONS ACE

This study investigated psychometric properties of an instrument for assessing perceived occupational value, the 26-item OVal-pd. Data from 225 Swedish subjects with and without known mental illness were analysed regarding fit to the Rasch measurement model (partial credit model), differential item functioning (DIF), and functioning of the OVal-pd four-category response scale. The reliability (index of person separation, analogous to Cronbach's alpha) was good (0.92) but there were signs of overall and item level (six items) misfit. There was DIF between people with and without mental illness for three items. Iterative deletion of misfitting items resulted in a new 18-item DIF-free scale with good overall and individual item fit and maintained reliability (0.91). There were no disordered response category thresholds. These observations also held true in separate analyses among people with and without mental illness. Thus, the first steps of ensuring that occupational value can be measured in a valid and reliable way have been taken. Still, occupational value is a dynamic construct and the aspects that fit the construct may vary between contexts. This has implications for, e.g., cross-cultural research and calls for identification of a core set of culture-free items to allow for valid cross-cultural comparisons. Copyright © 2009 Informa UK Limited

The working relationship between client and therapist can be important to enhance outcomes from vocational rehabilitation for women with stress-related disorders in primary health care. The aim was to investigate the working relationship, as perceived by clients and therapists in the Redesigning Daily Occupations (ReDO™) program, and its relationships to return to work and satisfaction with the rehabilitation. Another aim was to compare the ReDO™ group and a "care-as-usual" (CAU) group regarding perceptions of the working relationship with the social insurance officer. © 2015 Eklund et al.; licensee BioMed Central.

Patterns of daily occupations (PDO) and occupational balance (OB) are recurring phenomena in the literature. Both are related with health and well-being, which makes them central in occupational therapy practice and occupational science. The aim was to review how PDO and OB are described in the literature, to propose a view of how the two constructs may be linked, and elaborate on how such a view may benefit occupational science and occupational therapy. The literature was analysed by latent and manifest content analysis and comparative analysis. The findings were summarized in a model, framing PDO as the more objective and OB as the more subjective result from an interaction between personal preferences and environmental influences. The proposed model does not assume a cause–effect relationship between the targeted constructs, rather a mutual influence and a joint reaction to influencing factors. Indicators of PDO and OB were identified, as well as tools for assessing PDO and OB. The authors propose that discerning PDO and OB as separate but interacting phenomena may be useful in developing a theoretical discourse in occupational science and enhancing occupational therapy practice. Although the scope of this study was limited, the proposed view may hopefully inspire further scrutiny of constructs. © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Previous research has shown that the Redesigning Daily Occupations programme reduced the degree of sick leave and increased return to work rates among women on sick leave for stress-related disorders when compared with "care as usual". To further investigate the Redesigning Daily Occupations intervention, this study explored changes in the work situation from baseline to a 12-month follow-up in the Redesigning Daily Occupations group compared with the "care as usual" group and analysed any predictors of change. © 2012 Australian Occupational Therapy Journal.

Background: Senior camps have been established with the purpose to decrease social exclusion and improve health amongst elderly people. These senior camps build on notions of what it means to age and to ”be old” in relation to functional abilities, activity, participation and health.Method:Eight persons who participated in a senior camp were interviewed in their homes before and after the stay. The data was analysed using a narrative case-centred approach.

Results: Seniors going to the camp were looking forward to meet friends and do things they did not commonly do. The pace at the camp, just being and not doing much, was appreciated by some while others whished for more organized activities. Being together with others, including eating together, talking and even sharing rooms was appreciated. Being close to nature was described to contribute both to peace of mind and to become spirited and strong, feelings that persisted after returning home. Being at a camp close to nature and the serving of traditional food was linked to memories from the childhood.

Conclusion: Occupations were used both to consolidate and to challenge perceptions of age at the camp. The stay contributed to a feeling of belonging and experiences of doing during the camp and being in nature influenced the participants’ everyday life.

Application to Practice: The experience of pace and place at the camp was important for a successful stay that could contribute to wellbeing. This presentation will elaborate on how occupations were used to challenge perceptions of age.

Background: There is an evident discrepancy between need and provision of evidence-based return-to-work (RTW) interventions in existing mental health services. Online dissemination of evidence-based interventions is presumed to reduce this gap. However, there is almost no knowledge available on perceived acceptability of digital RTW interventions among service users, which are factors that might influence the development and implementation of future interventions. The aim of this study was to develop knowledge of service user acceptability of mWorks, a proposed digital RTW solution.

Methods: Participants (n = 18) with experience of common mental disorder and sick leave were recruited with a purposive snowball sampling method. Semi-structured interviews (n = 12) and one focus group interview (n = 6) were conducted. A deductive thematic analysis was performed according to the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability.

Results: Digital RTW interventions were perceived as acceptable and aligned with participant value. Participants expressed positive attitudes toward having access to support, regardless of time and place. A certain ambiguity between a decline in social interactions and opportunities to RTW in a safe space was reported. Participants were confident in their ability to use digital RTW solutions, but reported the need to reduce stressful elements of using smartphones. Overly demanding digital solutions, i.e. ones requiring high cognitive effort, were described as burdensome.

Conclusions: For digital RTW solutions to be acceptable, they need to complement traditional services by providing accessible and person-centred support throughout the RTW process. They should be designed to reduce the need for cognitive effort. Future research should explore how to balance user autonomy with other support components in digital interventions. © The Author(s). 2021

Psykisk sjukdom och stress anges ofta som orsak till längre sjukskrivning och drabbar kvinnor till övervägande del. Majoriteten av Sveriges kvinnor är idag yrkesarbetande, de tar större ansvar för hem och familj, de arbetar oftare deltid, tar oftare ut ledighet för vård av sjuka barn och utför 65 % mer hemarbete än männen. Att kombinera arbetsliv med omsorg om familjen blir en daglig utmaning och många aktiviteter som ofta utförs samtidigt ger en komplex vardag.

Inom arbetsterapi anses en balans i vardagens aktiviteter vara en förutsättning för hälsa. Antagandet bygger främst på kliniska erfarenheter och det finns därför ett stort behov av forskning som undersöker dessa samband. De aktuella avhandlingsarbetet kring kvinnors vardag och hälsa är en del i ett forskningsprogram på avd. för arbetsterapi, kring samband mellan aktivitet och hälsa.

Målet med avhandlingsarbetet var att nå fördjupad förståelse för hur kvinnors hälsa påverkas av deras vardagliga aktiviteter, inkluderande inte bara yrkesarbete, utan även hushållsarbete, omsorg om barn och fritidsaktiviteter.

Den första studien i avhandlingen innebar att så detaljerat som möjligt beskriva flödet av de dagliga aktiviteterna, ett så kallat aktivitetsmönster. Med hjälp av flera olika metoder identifierades tre olika typer av aktiviteter vilka utgör komponenterna i ett aktivitetsmönster. Huvudaktiviteter såsom att arbeta eller laga middag, dominerar mönstret medan dolda aktiviteter, såsom t.ex. att ta in post, eller sortera tvätt, passerar obemärkta. Oförutsedda aktiviteter förändrar flödet i mönstret och innebär alltid ett avbrott, en störning, såsom ett oväntat besök eller barn som bråkar.

Hur påverkas upplevelsen av hälsa av dynamiken mellan huvudaktiviteter, dolda- och oförutsedda aktiviteter? Innebär förekomsten av många oförutsedda aktiviteter en ökad risk för ohälsa? För att få svar på dessa frågor intervjuades av 100 friska, gifta, kvinnor i åldern 25 och 44 år, yrkesarbetande och som hade minst ett barn i åldern 3-6 år. Kvinnorna fick bl. a. ange och värdera sådant som de stördes respektive stimulerades av i vardagen och besvara frågor om hälsa och livskvalitet. Dessutom upprättades en dagbok för varje kvinna i vilken de beskrev vad de gjorde, från morgon till kväll, dagen innan intervjun. Materialet från intervjuerna bearbetades och presenteras som fyra ytterliggare delarbeten i avhandlingen.

Flera av resultaten visar på vardagsaktiviteternas betydelse för upplevelsen av hälsa. Att uppleva många och starka störningar och avbrott i vardagen i kombination med en upplevelse av bristande kontroll innebar en ökad risk för upplevelse av såväl ohälsa som lägre livskvalitet. Det viktigaste resultatet var att störningar genererades i lika stor utsträckning i hushållet som på arbetet vilket belyser betydelse av att inte ensidigt beakta arbetssituationen i samband med stress, ohälsa och sjukskrivningar.

Intervjuerna med de 100 kvinnorna visade samtidigt att en mångfald av aktiviteter i vardagen inte bara är negativt. Stimmulans och uppmuntran i vardagen upplevdes oftast i utförandet av olika aktiviteter. Alla typer av aktiviteter gav positiva upplevelser; att arbeta, att rida, att städa och laga mat eller att ta ett bad. Ett motsägelsefullt resultat då flera av dessa aktiviteter också angavs som källor till irritation. Slutsatsen blev att det är viktigt att sträva efter möjligheten att utför aktiviteter i sin helhet, utan avbrott och att en vardag dominerad av ständiga avbrott kan utgöra en ökad risk för ohälsa.

Kvinnornas dagböcker analyserades därför med fokus på aktivitetsmönsternas komplexitet och dynamiken mellan huvudaktiviteter, dolda aktiviteter och oförutsedda aktiviteter. Mönstren jämföres för att finna likheter och bestämma skillnader i komplexitet. Bland de 100 exemplen på vardagsmönster identifierades tre grupper av typiska mönster, låg-, medel- och högkomplexa. De högkomplexa vardagsmönstren innehöll i motsats till de lågkomplexa, korta intervall i aktiviteterna, många avbrott även under natten. Få samband mellan hälsa och grad av komplexitet i aktivitetsmönstret kunde uppvisas men de kvinnor vars vardag klassades som högkomplex angav lägre upplevelse av hälsa än de med lågkomplex vardag.

Studierna har ökat förståelsen för sambanden mellan aktivitetsmönster och upplevelsen av hälsa. En kunskap som kan bidra till utvecklandet av nya och förbättrade strategier för arbetsteraputisk behandling av stressrelaterade symtom, främst för kvinnor men på sikt även för män. Slutligen har viktig metodutveckling skett inom ramen för avhandlingsarbetet. Dessa metoder förbättrar möjligheten att kartlägga och bedöma hela vardagssituationen och inte vilket fortfarande är vanligast, en ensidig fokusering på lönearbetets betydelse för hälsan.

The recognition of daily occupations is important for promoting health. All the same, the everyday is often taken for granted, even if daily occupations that are hindered or lost may constitute a risk for developing ill-health. Risk factors might include occupational imbalance or occupational alienation.

In this paper, the Redesigning Daily Occupations (ReDO) programme, an occupational therapy group intervention aimed at providing knowledge about daily occupations and their impact on health, is presented as an example of an educative approach within the profession. In the ReDO-programme, occupational therapists act as coaches to support learning about occupation. The group leaders use specific tools to facilitate self-occupation-analysis among participants. Understanding the influence of occupation may enable sustainable changes in the everyday and patterns of daily occupations that promote health. © Informa UK Limited 

I would like to thank the New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists and the Scientific Programme Committee for inviting me to present at this conference. It is an honour. The theme of this conference is Fresh Perspectives and I will present three perspectives on maybe the most central phenomenon for occupational therapists; namely daily occupations. My point of departure is my part of the world, a Scandinavian and Swedish approach to occupational therapy practice, occupational therapy research, and education. I present a view of the complexity of human occupation, from a time and doing perspective. The focus is how understandings of the organisation and structure of occupations can be used to enhance health. I will address an occupation focused intervention for women with stress-related illness, and where the knowledge can be used to enable participants to make self-directed changes in their daily occupations.

Hassles and uplifts, a concept used in measuring daily stress events, was applied to working mothers' everyday life. The aim was to explore the stability in working mothers' experiences in patterns of daily occupations, operationalized as hassles and uplifts, between the year 2000 (baseline) and the year 2005 (follow-up). Further, the intention was to reveal possible differences in the number, origins, and ratings of hassles or uplifts between baseline and follow-up. The baseline study comprised 100 women, of whom 77 agreed to participate in the follow-up study. At baseline the questionnaire THU-5 was applied in the form of an interview, and at follow-up it was adapted to a self-response questionnaire sent home to the respondents. Stability was explored qualitatively by investigating the reported causes of hassles and uplifts, and quantitatively by comparing the numbers and ratings of the experiences at baseline and at follow-up. The results indicate a certain amount of stability, although the cause of the experiences changes in line with changes in life stage. It was concluded that the methodology used (THU-5 and THU-3) was sensitive to these changes and could be applied in clinical settings, providing occupational therapists with a tool for detecting daily hassles that could be dealt with. Likewise, detected uplifts can be useful in the process of re-clesigning patterns of daily occupations affected by stress. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited.

This article presents the structure and content of an occupational therapy group treatment program intended to enable lifestyle changes for return to work, used with women who have stress-related disorders. The Redesigning Daily Occupations-program constitutes three phases. Phase I focuses on occupational self-analysis. Phase II focuses on setting goals and strategies for change, and Phase III is a job placement program that provides opportunities to implement the strategies when work is restarted. The program may be of use for the target group and additional populations where people experience difficulties in organizing their daily occupations. The program outcome should be evaluated. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Daily occupations form a pattern dominated by a few main occupations intertwined with hidden occupations. A third category is denoted unexpected occupations or minor events that interrupt the rhythm of main and hidden occupations. The phenomenon of unexpected occupations can be interpreted as an illustration of interruptions in daily life or daily minor stressors. The study aimed to investigate women's perceived frequency of such disturbing interruptions, and possible relationships with their self-rated health and satisfaction with life as a whole. The study included 202 women aged 38 years, and 286 women aged 50 years who replied to a mailed questionnaire. The results showed that perceived high frequency of interruptions was related to poor subjective health among the younger women, and to low satisfaction with life as a whole in both age groups. Furthermore, the younger women perceived disturbing interruptions more frequently than the older ones, and among the younger women those who had children living at home and lived with a partner experienced disturbing interruptions more frequently than those without children living at home or those living single. The results should be interpreted with caution because the measurement of perceived interruptions has not yet been subjected to psychometric evaluation. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Objective: The aim was to explore aspects of everyday life in addition to established risk factors and their relationship to subjective health and well-being among public sector employees in Sweden. Gainful employment impact on employees' health and well-being, but work is only one part of everyday life and a broader perspective is essential in order to identify health-related factors.

Participants: Data were obtained from employees at six Social Insurance Offices in Sweden, 250 women and 50 men.

Method: A questionnaire based on established instruments and questions specifically designed for this study was used. Relationships between five factors of everyday life, subjective health and well-being were investigated by means of multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results: The final model revealed a limited importance of certain work-related factors. A general satisfaction with everyday activities, a stress-free environment and general control in addition to not having monotonous movements at work were found to be factors explaining 46.3% of subjective good health and well-being.

Conclusions: A person's entire activity pattern, including work, is important, and strategies for promoting health should take into account the person's situation as a whole. The interplay between risk and health factors is not clear and further research is warranted. © 2012 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

The importance of patterns of daily occupations to health has been emphasised ever since occupational therapy was founded, but little is known about this relationship. The aim of this study was to describe in detail one woman’s pattern of daily occupations as an initial step in developing strategies for further studies of patterns of daily occupations. Four different methods were used, one on each of four days. Three types of occupations were discerned; main occupations, hidden occupations, and unexpected occupations, which intertwined and formed an occupational pattern. The occupations were, in turn, composed of actions. Using the diary method gave an overall picture of main occupations during a whole day. Direct observation and video-recorded observation added additional information about the actions that were the building blocks of the occupations, as well as about hidden and unexpected occupations. The fourth method, a variant of the experience sampling method, gave deeper knowledge about the informant’s reflections when performing an occupation. It was assumed that a detailed description of patterns of occupation is needed to understand its relationship to health. Therefore, if the diary method is used, it has to be combined with a subsequent interview. Direct observation was the single method that best captured the complexity of the pattern of daily occupations as captured in this study. Copyright © 2001 Informa UK Limited.

The study builds on a previous study of the everyday occupations of 100 women who worked at home and in the paid workforce. Their pattern of daily occupations was depicted using time-occupation graphs inspired by the time geography method, whereby the women’s pattern of occupations were categorised and clustered according to complexity. For each woman, the level of complexity was operationalised as the frequency of shifting between three categories of occupation (main, hidden, and unexpected) and sleep, along with the frequency of unexpected occupations and whether shifts in type of occupation were concentrated in limited parts of the day, e.g., the mornings. The study had two aims. First, to test the hypothesis that among women who work at home and in the paid workforce, those with low-complex patterns of daily occupations would rate their health and well-being higher than women having medium-complex patterns. As well, those with medium-complex patterns would rate their health and well-being better than women with highcomplex patterns. Secondly, the study aimed to investigate differences among these subgroups in relation to sociodemographic factors. The hypothesis was partly confirmed. Increasing complexity was associated with lower levels of self-rated health, but not with lower levels of sense of coherence and well-being. With respect to sociodemographic factors, the women in the three subgroups differed in terms of level of education. The results tentatively confirm theoretical assumptions of a link between patterns of daily occupations and experiences of health, and provide an incentive for further research on this relationship. © 2006, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Stress-related disorders are a frequent cause for sick leave, with consequences such as great distress and adverse economic effects for the affected person and substantial costs for society. Identifying effective interventions that facilitate return to work is thus important. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the 16-week Redesigning Daily Occupations program as a work rehabilitation method for Swedish women with stress-related disorders. The authors of this study hypothesized that, compared to women who got Care as Usual, 12 months after completed rehabilitation a larger proportion of the Redesigning Daily Occupations women would have returned to work, and they would have less sick leave, perceive less stress, and have greater self-esteem. Forty-two women entered the Redesigning Daily Occupations intervention and a matched comparison group received Care as Usual. The data, collected between 2007 and 2010, consisted of registry information and questionnaires targeting socio-demographics, perceived stress, and self-esteem. The findings partly verified the hypotheses. A larger proportion of the Redesigning Daily Occupations women returned to work and they decreased their sick leave and increased their self-esteem more than the Care as Usual group, but the groups did not differ in stress reduction. Thus, the Redesigning Daily Occupations seems to be a promising work rehabilitation method for women with stress-related disorders. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Swedish women are more ill than men are, often explained by women's heavier total workload. A balanced pattern of daily occupations is believed to promote health. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of aspects of the pattern of daily occupations and lifestyle factors to working mothers' health and well-being, and whether control influenced any relationships. One hundred working, cohabiting mothers took part in semi-structured interviews targeting health and well-being, control, lifestyle variables, and hassles and uplifts in the pattern of daily occupations. All variables were dichotomised according to a median cut and subjected to logistic regression analyses. Working more and having a university diploma were found to be risk factors for experiencing more hassles. Risk factors for fewer uplifts were having more than two children and fewer leisure occupations. Experiencing less control constituted a risk of low self-rated health and with an additional high level of hassles impacted on the experience of well-being. © 2003 The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

The aim of this study was to investigate experiences of hassles and uplifts among women. One hundred working mothers were interviewed using the Target Complaints instrument. Content analysis, resulting in both qualitative categories and quantitative variables, was used. Working mothers' hassles were mainly generated by their social, temporal and doing contexts and illustrate the importance of considering women's total patterns of everyday occupations and not focusing one-sidedly on the work situation when treating occupation-related ill-health. Women's uplifts were experienced through the social context and by doing such different occupations as going to the movies, cleaning the house, or attending a class. This indicates the appropriateness of using a client-centred approach in interventions with openness to the client's unique situation. Unexpected occupations were identified almost exclusively among the hassles. This is important knowledge for occupational therapists since women will continue to be dual workers and at potential risk of developing unbalanced and detrimental patterns of occupations, in turn causing ill health. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

This study investigates the theoretical assumption of the Value and Meaning in Occupations model. The aim was to explore the relationship between occupational value, perceived meaning, and subjective health in a sample of individuals of working age, 50 men and 250 women. Frequency of experienced values in occupations was assessed through the Occupational Value instrument with pre-defined items. Perceived meaning was operationalized and assessed by the Sense of Coherence measure. Subjective health was estimated by two questions from the SF-36 questionnaire. The analyses implied descriptive analyses, correlations, and logistic regression analyses in which sociodemographic variables were included. The findings showed highly significant relationships between occupational value and perceived meaning and when belonging to the high group of occupational value the likelihood was tripled of belonging to the high group of perceived meaning. When married or cohabitating there was double the likelihood of belonging to the high group of perceived meaning. Although perceived meaning was found to be positively associated with subjective health, working full time was the most important factor in explaining subjective health, compared with working less than full time. The results confirm assumptions in the ValMO-model, and the importance of focusing on occupational value in clinical practice is highlighted. © 2011 Informa Healthcare.

It has been proposed that it should be possible to identify patterns if daily occupations that promote health or cause illness. This study aimed to develop and to evaluate a process for analysing and characterising subjectively perceived patterns of daily occupations, by describing patterns as consisting if main, hidden, and unexpected occupations. Yesterday diaries describing one day if 100 working married mothers were collected through interviews. The diaries were transformed into time-and-occupation graphs. An analysis based on visual interpretation of the patterns was performed. The graphs were grouped into the categories low, medium, or high complexity. In order to identify similarities the graphs were then compared both pair-wise and group-wise. Finally, the complexity and similarities perspectives were integrated, identifying the most typical patterns of daily occupations representing low, medium, and high complexity. Visual differences in complexity were evident. In order to validate the Recognition of Similarities (ROS) process developed, a measure expressing the probability if change was computed. This probability was found to differ statistically significantly between the three groups, supporting the validity of the ROS process. © 2004, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Anxiety and stress-related disorders are highly prevalent and impede participation in life activities. Occupational therapists work extensively with people diagnosed with these disorders but the effectiveness of their interventions is unclear. A systematic search strategy identified 19 papers describing 13 studies. Studies varied in methodology, intervention type, and theory base. The results show the potential for lifestyle approaches, occupational science-based programs, and skill-building to improve mental health. The variety of interventions and methodologies of many studies means that the effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions for this population is not yet determined. High-quality research is required to replicate interventions with emerging potential for effectiveness.

Common mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and stress-related disorders are increasing worldwide, resulting in long-term sick leave and lower quality of life. Traditional treatment is often insufficient to facilitate the recovery process, and the need for holistic interventions that enable successful recovery is evident. Equine-assisted interventions have shown promising results in health promotion among people with mental disorders, and further research is needed to implement them within the range of available care. The aim of the study is therefore to describe experiences of a therapeutic equine-assisted group intervention for people with common mental disorders on sick leave. The study has a descriptive qualitative design with an inductive approach. Ten participants with common mental disorders on sick leave were interviewed after participating in a 12-week equine-assisted intervention and the data were analysed with conventional content analysis. The analysis generated the overall theme “The equine-assisted group intervention facilitates recovery,” which summons the four categories “The environment of the horses contributes to relaxation and an ability to be in the present,” “The presence of the horses facilitates supportive relationships in the group,” “Interplay with the horses entails physical activity and bodily improvements” and “Emotional interactions with the horses strengthen inner power.” In conclusion, equine-assisted interventions have the potential to facilitate recovery for people with common mental disorders by providing relaxation, promoting the ability to be in the present, cultivating supportive relationships and providing physical activity and bodily improvements as well as emotional interactions that strengthen the participants’ inner power. © 2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Background: This article is based on a common understanding of the concept of creative activities as intervention, as described in occupational therapy literature. Historically, creative activities have been used as intervention in occupational therapy. There is, however, a lack of clarity in descriptions of the concept. Aims/Objectives: To investigate and clarify the concept of creative activities as intervention (CaI) and to validate the findings in occupational therapy practice. Material and methods: A selection of articles according to PRISMA resulted in 15 articles, analysed with concept analysis. The results were validated by a reference panel of seven occupational therapists using a questionnaire and data was analysed by descriptive statistics. Results: Five attributes defined CaI: (1) Often consisting of elements of art and craft using mind and body, (2) Being experienced as meaningful, (3) Creating creative processes, (4) Developing skills, enhancing occupational performance and managing everyday life, and (5) Being easy to modify individually or in groups with different approaches. Three cases were generated from the attributes to illustrate the integrity of the analysis. Conclusions and significance: The results led to a description of CaI that could facilitate future research communication and common definition in occupational therapy practice. © 2020, © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This paper reports preliminary efforts to canvas occupational therapists' opinions on occupational science research priorities. Findings, while not generalizable, suggest that occupational therapists are seeking to better understand how to influence the health of children and those with chronic conditions, as well as to have knowledge that underpins their practice in the use of occupation. Occupational science can support occupational therapy practitioners to meet future changes in the scope of occupational therapy practice. The initiative reported here is a small beginning in ensuring that occupational science fulfils its promise to inform the occupational therapy profession.

Svårigheter som anträffas inom vård- och omsorg är den arbetsmiljö som bedöms vara en stor risk för medarbetarna. Arbetsmiljöverket belyser organisatorisk och social arbetsmiljö i sin föreskrift AFS (2015:4), de påpekar att det är arbetsgivarens ansvar att ha kunskap om föreskriften innehåll. Det är viktigt för ledare inom vård- och omsorg att arbeta förebyggande och främjande för att bevara och utveckla medarbetarnas hälsa.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att utifrån ett pedagogiskt perspektiv belysa hur ledare inom vård- och omsorg förebygger ohälsa och främjar hälsa med fokus på organisatorisk och social arbetsmiljö.

För att kunna ta fram empiri har sju individuella intervjuer genomförts. Empirin transkriberades och en innehållsanalys utförde för att tydliggöra resultatets innehåll.

Resultatet som synliggjordes är att ledarna upplever att deras resurser för att förebygga ohälsa och främja hälsa hos sina medarbetare är betydande för den organisatoriska och sociala arbetsmiljön. Ledarna använder sig av bland annat handledning, medarbetarsamtal, riskbedömningar tillsammans med skyddsombud och tar även hjälp av andra aktörer i syfte för att bemöta medarbetarnas behov. Det kompetensbehov ledarna ansåg medarbetarna behöva för att förebygga ohälsa och främja hälsa var genom olika utbildningar. Hinder ledare påpekar står emot att föreskriften följs är bland annat, budget, tidsbrist samt bristande kunskap.

Slutsatsen är att ledarna bör fördjupa sig i föreskriften AFS (2015:4) om organisatorisk och social arbetsmiljö i stöd för att de inte kunde redogöra för dess innehåll och hur det implementeras i arbetsmiljön. Vi vill med hjälp av studien belysa samt inspirera ledare till att utveckla större engagemang till föreskriftens betydelse för medarbetarnas hälsa.

A balance between different experiences of occupations in everyday life is important for well-being. The study aim was to describe hassles and uplifts in everyday occupations among women on long-term sick-leave due to stress-related disorders. The sample consisted of 77 women and experiences were collected by the THU-5 instrument. The statements were analysed using quantitative content analysis. Data were categorized into three domains of hassles concerning oneself, doings, and social and physical context. The same domains occurred among the uplifts. Hassles were mostly generated by disturbing people around the women and by their limited body functions. The women were uplifted by supportive social relationships and by performing relaxing and calming occupations. The study illuminates the strong need for social support among women on sick-leave, as well as their low level of energy, which was an obvious obstacle for performing occupations. It is suggested that, in order to increase well-being in the target group, the occupational therapist should meet their need for occupations that match their current level of energy. The challenge for the client is to avoid remaining in a pattern of low-demand occupations without exceeding her/his capacity and returning to an unhealthy pattern of occupations. © 2012 Informa Healthcare.

BACKGROUND: Sick leave due to stress-related ill-health is increasing and is often caused by occupational imbalance. These types of issues tend to affect both the ability to work and cope with everyday life, as well as the overall experience of health, negatively. There is still little knowledge on how to prepare people and workplaces for the return-to-work process after participation in a work rehabilitation program due to stress and occupational ill-health. Therefore, this study aimed to describe what is needed to achieve a balanced everyday life that includes paid work as experienced by individuals who had participated in a ReDO® intervention due to occupational imbalance and ill-health. METHODS: The concluding notes from 54 informants' medical records were used for qualitative content analysis. The informants had participated in an occupational therapy group intervention to promote occupational health and regain full work capacity. RESULTS: The analysis resulted in one major theme and four categories describing how the informants perceive that they must take control of their everyday life as a whole. By doing so, they need to work with structurization and prioritization, social interaction, boundary setting, and occupational meaningfulness. CONCLUSION: The study indicates a highly relational process, where it is impossible to divide life into private and work, and presupposes balance in everyday life in multiple dimensions. Its contribution includes the formulation of perceived needs in the transition between intervention and return to work and could, through further research, be used to generate a more effective and sustainable return- and rehabilitation models. © 2023. The Author(s).

Introduction: Stress-related ill-health is one of the fastest-growing reasons for sick leave and an extensive societal problem. It affects the individual, the workplace, and society at large. People can experience stress in all areas of everyday life and often cope by stopping prioritizing themselves. Agenda 2030 third goal aims to promote good health and well-being for all and ensure people's opportunity to reach their full potential and contribute to society's development. However, the focus is often on interventions to rehabilitate people back from ill health, not to promote their health.

The aim was to explore what the risk factors, and what promotes well-being in people with stress-related ill-health from both a work and everyday perspective.

Method Through mixed methods with both quantitative tree analysis of 218 people before entering a work rehabilitation program, and qualitative content analysis of concluding notes of 54 people after the intervention a compilation was made.  

Results The findings of the studies show a highly relational process, where it is impossible to divide life into private and work, and presupposes balance in everyday life in multiple dimensions. It also indicates that risk factors aren’t about gender, age, or education- but about complex occupational patterns in daily life and a lack of social context.

Conclusion: Work and everyday life are highly intertwined. Perhaps the key to promoting our health and preventing stress-related ill-health is not to scale down on occupations and sleep more, but to add more meaningful occupations that give us a sense of participation and fellowship.

The aim of the present study was to investigate how people with persistent mental illness, with various types of work and employment conditions, experience and describe the meaningfulness of work. The study had a qualitative approach and twelve informants living in the community were purposefully selected and interviewed according to overarching themes. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis, and all of the authors were involved in the analysis process. The findings resulted in four main themes: 1) work per se has certain characteristics, 2) participation in different contexts gives a feeling of normality, acceptance, belonging and fulfilment of norms and values, 3) work affords structure, energy and a balanced daily life, and 4) work increases well-being and strengthens one's identity. A tentative model is described concerning perceived meaningfulness in work among individuals with persistent mental illness, in which the first three aspects of meaning are a prerequisite for meaning in terms of increased well-being and strengthened identity. Furthermore, it seems important that work has to bring the just right challenge to the individual in order for him or her to perceive the identified aspects of meaningfulness. © 2009 IOS Press. All rights reserved.

This study investigated how people with persistent mental illness who work or study, attend a community-based activity centre or have no regular activities, experience and describe the meaningfulness of their daily occupations. Data were gathered from 102 randomly selected individuals who were interviewed regarding their daily occupations and perceived meaningfulness using a ‘yesterday activity diary’. Content analysis revealed five main themes of meaningfulness: 1) Connection with others and the world around them, 2) Enjoyment and fun in life, 3) Being productive and having a sense of achievement, 4) Being occupied and having routines and projects in the stream of time and 5) Taking care of oneself to maintain health. Their connections, enjoyment and fun, and taking care of oneself were the aspects of meaningfulness that occurred most frequently. Participants who worked or studied more frequently identified connections, and made fewer statements about taking care of their health. The findings contribute to the knowledge of perceived meaningfulness in daily occupation, showing that despite different occupational structures and settings, all themes of meaningfulness were represented in the three groups. Thus, people with persistent mental illness create and find meaning within their daily occupations, although the occupations that generate these aspects of meaningfulness may differ. © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The aim of this study was to investigate time use in work/education, self-care/self-maintenance, play/leisure, rest/relaxation, and sleep in people with persistent mental illness. A further aim was to investigate how time use in the daily activities was associated with health-related variables and social interaction. The study comprised 103 participants with a diagnosis of persistent mental illness who completed self-ratings and interviews in order to assess (1) time use of activities during one 24-hour day, (2) social interaction and (3) health-related factors. The major results indicated that the total time in activity (TTA) and the time spent on work/ education and sleep seemed to be related to the majority of the target variables. Four groups of daily rhythm were identified and the daily rhythm groups differed concerning perceived mastery and social interaction. Although the results of this study were statistically significant they did not indicate clinical significance. Therefore, the assumption that there is a relationship between occupation and well-being could not be clearly verified. This study had a cross-sectional design based on a one-time measure, which is an important limitation for the validity of the study. Furthermore, no Bonferroni corrections were made for mass significance and some of the findings would have disappeared if such corrections had been made. More studies concerning time use in daily activities, and daily rhythm in relation to health and well-being are needed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.