Feasibility of a Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of Occupational Therapy in Parkinson's Disease (OTiP pilot)

• Patient: Combination of AMPS-process skills and COPM-performance measure [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
• Caregiver: Zarit Burden Inventory (ZBI) [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

• Patient: Assessment of Motor and Process Skills(AMPS)- motor skills [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
• Patient: Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM)- satisfaction measure [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Patient: Impact on Participation and Autonomy (IPA) [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Patient: AMC Linear Disability Scale (ALDS) [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Patient: Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire 39 (PDQ-39) [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Patient and Caregiver: EQ-5D and VAS [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Patient and caregiver: Resource utilization [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Caregiver: Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Caregiver: Questionnaire Objective Caregiving Burden [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Caregiver: SF-36 [ Time Frame: 0 and 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Patient and caregiver in intervention group: satisfaction with intervention [ Time Frame: 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

The purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility of a RCT evaluating the effectiveness of occupational therapy in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease is a complex disabling condition progressively affecting activities and participation of patients. Occupational Therapy aims to optimise functional performance and engagement in meaningful roles and activities. The lack of scientific evidence for the effectiveness of Occupational Therapy (OT) in Parkinson's Disease (PD) highlights the urgent need for high quality intervention studies. The recently developed Dutch clinical practice guideline for OT in PD offers a good basis for conducting an intervention study. This proposed pilot study is an important step towards setting up a large scale RCT to evaluate the effectiveness of OT in improving daily functioning of patients with PD and reducing caregivers' burden.

• Experimental: occupational therapy
  Intervention: Other: occupational therapy
• No Intervention: No occupational therapy
  Patients and their caregivers in the control group will have no occupational therapy intervention until their last measurement has taken place (3 months).

Inclusion criteria patients:

• idiopathic Parkinson's Disease according to UK Brain Bank Criteria
• home dwelling
• indication for occupational therapy (according to criteria in the evidence based guideline)

Inclusion criteria caregivers:

• available to provide informal support minimal two times a week to a patient who participates in the study.

Exclusion criteria patients:

• not capable of completing the self assessment forms (i.e. due to language or severe cognitive problems)
• comorbidity with symptoms that interfere with actively taking part in the intervention (e.g psychosis, severe heart condition). Or limitations in activities are dominated by the co morbid condition rather than by Parkinson's Disease.
• current participation in other allied health research (IMPACT, PARKFIT, ERGODIM)
• having received occupational therapy intervention in the last 12 months