Occupation Based Telerehabilitation Intervention for Adolescents with Myelomeningocele: A Pilot Study

Aims: This pilot study examined the impact of an occupation based intervention using a telerehabilitation format with adolescents with myelomeningocele (MMC). Methods: We conducted a nonrandomized pilot study including four adolescents ages 14–18 with MMC. The intervention program included 10–12 sessions of the Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance remotely delivered via videoconferencing. Outcome measures included the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), Wee-Functional Independence Measure;(Wee-FIM), and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL). Assessments were administered at baseline, post intervention and at three-month follow-up. Results: Following intervention, participants rated their performance as having improved 2 points on the COPM for 8 out of 12 trained goals and on 2 out of 8 untrained goals. At 3-month follow-up improvement was reported on 9 out of 12 trained goals and 3 out of 8 untrained goals All participants made clinically significant improvements on the Wee-FIM total score following intervention and improvements were maintained at 3-month follow-up. The intervention effect on the PedsQL was inconclusive. Feedback interviews suggested that participants experience high satisfaction from the results and implementation of the intervention. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate potential efficacy of occupation based teleintervention for adolescents with MMC.