PhD Projects
Healthy aging with long鈥憈erm health conditions: Measuring and understanding self-management听ability in people听over 70听- the SWE PRISM-CC study
PhD-student: Ingrid Olsson
Ingrid OlssonOlder听adults听are more likely to suffer from听one or more听long-term听health conditions and often experience disruptive life听transitions such as retirement and听loss of family and friends, which can affect their ability to manage their health conditions in听everyday听life.听Despite this, there is little research on older people's self-management听difficulty听and their听need for self-management听support.听The purpose of this project is to better understand how听older adults听with long-term health conditions听rate听their self-management听difficulty听and what support they need to maintain good health. 听
LiBaS- Life Balance: an important outcome for people with neuromuscular diseases
PhD-student: Jacqueline Leenders
The Life Balance study is being conducted听in The Netherlands and听has two purposes:
1. Measuring Life Balance:听Four dimensions of Life Balance can be distinguished: 1) Length, measured in time allocation to activities; 2)听width, referring to the听amount听of activities and life roles; 3)听depth, referring to the meaning of activities and life roles; 4)听weight, which is the physical or mental burden of activities听that people听experience. Life Balance is subjectively defined by individuals in terms of how they chose to spend time in valued, obligatory and discretionary activities (Backman 2004). For people with chronic fatigue due to a disease, finding a new balance in what they听can听do and听want听to do can be a struggle. Too听much听and too many strenuous activities听can lead to overload and exhaustion, but too few meaningful activities can lead to an imbalance as well.
2. Undertaking a process听evaluation of the Individual Managing Fatigue intervention delivered by community based Occupational Therapists听
Sensitivity and specificity of a new screening tool for identifying the need of low vision rehabilitation (LVR) services among people with low vision.
PhD-student: Yaser Alnasery
This project aims to find the fewest combination of items听that could efficiently identify who need LVR services to听develop a screening tool.听The screening tool aims to assist clinicians to refer clients 鈥� over 12 years old 鈥� who will most likely benefit from LVR services.听
Low vision assistive technology devices for reading: a scoping review.
PhD-student: Yaser Alnasery
Reading is one of the main occupations that people with low vision name when setting goals and priorities yet, devices to assist with this goal are often abandoned. While many Assistive Technology Devices (ATDs) are available, not much is known about how and why people with low vision are choosing their reading devices.听This review aims to understand what ATDs people with low vision prefer to use for reading, as well as how and why these ATDs were selected.听
Managing Fatigue in Parkinson`s Disease: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
PhD-student: Neda Alizadeh
Fatigue in Parkinson`s Disease (PD) significantly deteriorates patients鈥� ability to fulfill their daily roles and activities, especially social participation and employment.鈥� Among鈥痶he鈥痑vailable鈥痶reatments鈥痵uggested in the literature to address fatigue in PD, the Managing Fatigue: A Six-Week Energy Conservation Course is an evidence-based occupational therapy (OT) program that aims to enable people with chronic conditions to manage the impact of fatigue on their everyday life. Despite the extensive proof of the program鈥檚 effectiveness in鈥痯opulations with multiple sclerosis鈥痑nd its potential to be expanded to other similar conditions,鈥痚fficacy of this program has not been established in PD.鈥��
鈥�
This randomized controlled pilot study will evaluate the feasibility, and the preliminary effectiveness of the individual format of the Managing Fatigue program, named 鈥淢anaging Fatigue: The Individual Program (MFIP)鈥�.
