Unit 1: Foundations of Disabilities Through an OT Lens

Question 1

The occupational therapy practice framework highlights…

Answer 1

Occupations, client factors, performance skills, performance patterns, and context and environment as essential interrelated concepts that combine to make up who an individual is.

Question 2

Once an occupational therapist identifies a diagnosis or a condition of a client, they must also take the time to understand…

Answer 2

What makes that person unique. Their roles, beliefs, habits, and occupational goals.

Question 3

Why are two clients never exactly the same, even if they have the same condition?

Answer 3

Their unique physical, psychological, emotional, and occupational characteristics will impact how you approach their care.
Ex. As a clinician working with older adults, with cerebral vascular accident, or CVA despite the potential functional impact a person might experience based on the location of damage in the brain, no two clients have ever presented exactly like I thought they would, or like each other.

Question 4

The CDC’s Social Determinants of Health website provides information on…

Answer 4

How the CDC collects data, how it uses that data to stay on top of health issues, and programs it has developed based on the data collected. What you should gather from the research site are the considerations related to social determinants of health and what is being done to address these issues across populations and diagnoses.

Question 5

The epidemiological principles of the disease or disability include…

Answer 5

The incidence, prevalence, etiology, and social determinants of health associated with the condition.

Question 6

Epidemiology

Answer 6

The study of the distribution, frequencies, and determinants of disease, injury, and disability in human populations

• Can be an important part of disease description, and epidemiological information can be used in disease prevention and management.
• Epidemiologists use statistics to estimate the prevalence of disease, injury, or disability within a variety of populations in order to analyze health trends.
• Often, public health policy and prevention decisions are made based on epidemiological information.
• As OT’s, we can use epidemiological information to help guide our understanding of disease and their implications for occupations.

Question 7

Incidence

Answer 7

The number of new cases of disease, injury, or disability within a specific time frame

Question 8

Prevelance

Answer 8

Total number of cases of diseases, injury or disability in a community, city, state, or nation existing at one point in time

Question 9

Distribution

Answer 9

The frequency and pattern of health events in a population

Question 9

Distribution

Answer 9

The frequency and pattern of health events in a population

Question 10

Etiology, or the cause of a disease, can help you to better understand…

Answer 10

The needs of the client, how you would progress from an intervention standpoint, and what additional factors you may need to consider when developing your approach to care.

Question 11

Etiology

Answer 11

The cause, or investigation of the cause of a particular condition.

• When a doctor is conducting tests to determine what is making you sick (i.e. flu, strep throat, common cold), they are attempting to determine the etiology of your illness.
• While we can’t always determine etiology with our patients, it is important to understand that conditions tend to have a typical root cause and that cause can impact the course of treatment and your role as an occupational therapist.

Question 12

Chronic Diseases

Answer 12

Etiology is most often attributed to lifestyle factors. The most common lifestyle factors that cause chronic conditions are poor diet and exercise, and tobacco use.

Question 13

Acquired Diseases

Answer 13

Conditions that develop over one’s lifespan and may be genetic, environmental, or a combination of the two

Question 14

Congenital Conditions

Answer 14

Conditions that are apparent at birth or shortly after birth. For example, cerebral palsy is a congenital condition.

Question 15

Genetic Conditions

Answer 15

• Caused by a change in DNA structure.
• It can be a mutation in a gene or gene sequence, damage to chromosomes such as changes in the number or structure of a chromosome, or environmental factors that damage chromosomes or genes.
• Genetic conditions can be inherited and typically appear during the fetus’s development.
• Acquired genetic mutations may be caused randomly or through exposure to environmental toxins.
• An example of a heritable genetic illness is cystic fibrosis.
• A common acquired genetic illness is cancer.
• Almost all conditions have some type of genetic component.

Question 16

Heritable Diseases

Answer 16

Genetic conditions (aka monogenic diseases) which are caused by a mutation in a single gene.
-Termed pure genetic diseases and are relatively rare compared to the general population.
Can be classified as:
-Dominant: where one parent has passed on the mutation to the child
-Recessive, where both parents must carry the mutation for the child to have it cause a mutation
-X-linked where the mutation is carried on the X chromosome.
(X-linked mutations can be dominant or recessive and appear more often in males because they only carry one X chromosome where females carry two X chromosomes and if one does not have the mutation it can override the one that does causing the mutation to not manifest itself as an apparent condition)
-Monogenic conditions include: sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, tay sachs disease, fragile X syndrome, and huntington’s disease.

Question 17

Idiopathic Conditions

Answer 17

The cause of the condition is unknown or cannot be determined.
-In these cases it could be that there are so many possible causes that it is unclear exactly what the root cause of the condition was, or that despite investigation no clear root cause was ever determined.

Question 18

Etiology of Mental Health Conditions

Answer 18

Uncertainty about causes, most say etiology is a combination of environmental and genetic components.

• Biologically, mental health conditions may develop because of changes or damage in nerve cells, neural pathways, or neurotransmitters (can be due to an underlying genetic condition or due to physical injury to the brain)
• Some have a heritable genetic cause.
• Other potential causes include infections, prenatal damage, substance abuse, and exposure to toxins.
• Psychologically, mental health conditions may be acquired because of exposure or experience with psychological trauma.
• Most mental health conditions have a multifactorial cause or the etiology may never be truly determined.

Question 19

The etiology of a condition is important to understand when you are working with a client because…

Answer 19

The cause of a condition may change your approach to care, and can give you information about the persons history, lifestyle, and personal context and environment.

Question 20

The etiology of a condition can be different depending on …

Answer 20

The client and many times we encounter idiopathic conditions. Regardless knowing the typical etiology of a condition can help you in evaluation and intervention planning, along with approaching each client encounter with as much background knowledge as possible.