Abstract
Goverover Y, O'Brien AR, Moore NB, DeLuca J. Actual Reality: a new approach to functional
assessment in persons with multiple sclerosis.
Objective
To examine the use of an innovative approach for assessing everyday life activities
of people with multiple sclerosis (MS): Actual Reality. Actual Reality is a performance-based
assessment approach that involves the use of the internet to perform real, everyday
life activities.
Design
A between-subjects design.
Setting
Outpatient rehabilitation institute.
Participants
Persons (n=21) with clinically definite MS and healthy controls (HCs) (n=18) without
any reported neurologic disabilities participated in this study. Participants were
between the ages of 21 to 60 years, and the sample consisted of volunteer sample.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Participants were asked to access the internet to purchase airline tickets for a round
trip flight and were administered the Minimal Assessment of Cognitive Functioning
in Multiple Sclerosis. Participants also completed questionnaires to assess quality
of life (Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis), functional status (Functional
Behavior Profile), and prior Internet experience.
Results
The MS group displayed significantly more difficulties than the HC group in accurately
and independently completing the Actual Reality task primarily because of cognitive
impairment. Self-report of quality of life and functional status were not correlated
with Actual Reality performance in the group of people with MS. However, the self-report
measures were significantly associated with affective symptomatology.
Conclusions
These results provide initial evidence supporting the use of the Actual Reality approach
in assessing persons with MS performing everyday life activities. Actual Reality is
a significant step forward in increasing the sensitivity, accessibility, and relevancy
of functional assessments in people with cognitive and physical disabilities.
Key Words
List of Abbreviations:
BVMT (Brief Visual Spatial Memory Test), BVMT-R (Brief Visual Spatial Memory Test-Revised), CMDI (Chicago Multiscale Depression Inventory), CVLT-II (California Verbal Learning Test 2nd edition), FAMS (Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis), FBP (Functional Behavior Profile), HC (healthy control), MS (multiple sclerosis), PASAT (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test), QOL (quality of life), SDMT (Symbol Digit Modalities Task), STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), VR (virtual reality)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Footnotes
Supported by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (grant no. PP1331).
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
