Assessing time processing ability and daily time management in persons with dementia: Psychometric properties of three instruments.
Ann-Christine Persson, Marika C Möller, Lena Dahlberg and 2 others
PMID 35769002WHAT IT FOUND
After revision, the dementia time-management assessments mostly captured a single area.
The self-rating form still needs clearer answer options. The objective test needs harder items for people whose problems are very mild.
Key findings
01The objective test measured a single time-processing ability area, but it was less consistent than desired, with person-reliability 0.77.
02The self-rating form separated people into different daily time-management levels, but four people with dementia gave response patterns that did not fit the final version.
03The proxy form measured a single daily time-management area, and proxy ratings tended to be more negative than self-ratings.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample was relatively small: 53 persons with dementia and 49 significant others, and Time-Proxy data were available from 49 of 53. People with severe dementia were not represented because participants with MMSE 11 or below were excluded, and the mean MMSE was 22.4 out of 30. The final instruments were changed during analysis by removing items, and some person responses did not fit the expected model. For KaTid-Senior and Time-S Senior, person ability was higher than item difficulty. Test-retest reliability and interrater reliability were not examined. Self-ratings in Time-S Senior may be affected by limited awareness of impairments and memory problems in dementia.
Declared interests
The last author developed the instruments and sells KaTid material and training courses to professionals. The other authors report no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these instruments as proven tools that improve dementia care. This study tested how they measure time processing and daily time management, not whether using them changes patient outcomes, and the self-rating form still needs clearer answer options.