Objectives: To examine the effect on mobility self-efficacy of a multifactorial, individualized, occupational/physical therapy (OT/PT) intervention delivered via teletechnology or in-home visits.
Design: Randomized, clinical trial.
Setting: One Department of Veterans Affairs and one private rehabilitation hospital.
Participants: Sixty-five community-dwelling adults with new mobility devices. Thirty-three were randomized to the control or usual care group (UCG), 32 to the intervention group (IG).
Intervention: Four, once-weekly, 1-hour OT/PT sessions targeting three mobility and three transfer tasks. A therapist delivered the intervention in the traditional home setting (trad group n = 16) or remotely via teletechnology (tele group n = 16).
Measurements: Ten-item Likert-scale measure of mobility self-efficacy.
Results: The IG had a statistically significantly greater increase in overall self-efficacy over the study period than the UCG (mean change: IG 8.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.8-13.7; UCG 1.2, 95% CI = -5.8-8.2). Descriptively, the IG exhibited positive changes in self-efficacy for all tasks and greater positive change than the UCG on all items with the exception of getting in and out of a chair. Comparisons of the two treatment delivery methods showed a medium standardized effect size (SES) in both the tele and trad groups, although it did not reach statistical significance for the tele group (SES: tele = 0.35, 95% CI = -2.5-0.95; trad = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.06-1.14).
Conclusion: A multifactorial, individualized, home-based OT/PT intervention can improve self-efficacy in mobility-impaired adults. The trend toward increased self-efficacy irrespective of the mode of rehabilitation delivery suggests that telerehabilitation can be a viable alternative to or can augment traditional in-home therapy.