Satisfaction with Daily Occupations: Construct validity and test-retest reliability of a screening tool for people with mental health disorders

Background/Aim: In occupational therapy research and in clinical practice there is a need for valid, reliable and easily administered measures. For research and screening purposes, the Satisfaction with Daily Occupations (SDO) instrument was developed. It addresses work, leisure, domestic tasks and self-care and generates a satisfactiou and all activity level score. This study investigated its construct validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability ill 55 clients visiting occupational therapists ill outpatient mental health care. Methods: The SDO Was administered oil two occasions with a 1-week interval, and data oil the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), psychosocial functioning and self-rated health were collected oil the first of these occasions. Results: Ill contrast to what was expected, the relationships between the SDO scores and the COPM scores were low. The strongest relationship between [lie SDO satisfaction score and any other variable was to psychosocial functioning. These variables shared 23% of the variance. Internal consistency for the satisfaction score was acceptable, alpha = 0.75 oil the second occasion, and the test-retest reliability was good;, = 0.84 for the satisfaction score and r(s) = 0.92 for the activity level. Conclusions: The results indicated that the SDO has satisfactory reliability. The instrument targets a specific construct, as compared to the COPM and the measurements Of self-rated health and psychosocial functioning. Thus, the SDO and the COPM satisfaction scale seem to assess different phenomena, probably because the SDO has predefined items, not specifically targeting a certain client's problematic occupations, whereas the COPM is based oil self-defined problems. The instruments may therefore supplement each other.