Performance of People with Dementia on the Occupational Therapy Adult Perceptual Screening Test (OT-APST)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of the Occupational Therapy Adult Perceptual Screening Test (OT-APST) as a screening tool of visual perception among people with dementia. The study compared the performance of twenty-five people with dementia with a normative sample of 150 people on the OT-APST. The dementia sample was found to perform significantly worse than the normative sample on all subscales of the OT-APST. Fair to moderate correlations were found between performance on each of the OT-APST subscales and dementia severity. The OT-APST may be useful in determining areas of difficulty and strength, allowing for more effective, individualised care for people with dementia. Results should be interpreted cautiously however given the demonstrated impact of declining cognitive skills on OT-APST performance in people with dementia.