Return to work in people with acquired brain injury: association with observed ability to use everyday technology.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to explore how the observed ability to use everyday technology (ET), intrapersonal capacities and environmental characteristics related to ET use contributes to the likelihood of return to work in people with ABI. The aim was also to explore whether these variables added to the likelihood of return to work to earlier defined significant variables in the group: age, perceived ADL ability and perceived ability in ET use.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study. The Management of Everyday Technology Assessment (META), the short version of the Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire (S-ETUQ) and a revised version of the ADL taxonomy were used to evaluate 74 people with ABI. Individual ability measures from all assessments were generated by Rasch analyses and used for additional statistical analysis.


RESULTS
The univariate analyses showed that the observed ability to use ET, as well as intrapersonal capacities and environmental characteristics related to ET use were all significantly associated with returning to work. In the multivariate analyses, none of these associations remained.


CONCLUSIONS
The explanatory precision of return to work in people with ABI increased minimally by adding the observed ability to use ET and the variables related to ET use when age, perceived ability in ET use and ADL had been taken in account.
a Luleå University of Technology , Department of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy , Luleå , Sweden.
Maria
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0341-6197
M
Larsson-Lund
b Karolinska Institutet , Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Occupational Therapy , Stockholm , Sweden.|c University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland.
Anders
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8976-2612
A
Kottorp
a Luleå University of Technology , Department of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy , Luleå , Sweden.|b Karolinska Institutet , Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Occupational Therapy , Stockholm , Sweden.
Camilla
C
Malinowsky
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D062069:Inventions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational / Q000379:methods; D062707:Return to Work; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Assessment; assistive technology; brain injury; occupational therapy; rehabilitation; technology; work