If possible, making changes in your environment can enhance self-management. This could not only prompt self-management behaviors, but it can make the performance of these skills much easier. Petersson and coworkers examined the impact of home modifications on self-rated ability in everyday life from various aspects for people aging with disabilities. The subjects were recruited from an agency providing home modification services in Sweden. Seventy-three subjects who had approved referrals and were scheduled to receive home modifications served as the intervention group, and 41 subjects waiting for their applications to be assessed for approval were in the comparison group. The subjects rated their ability in everyday life using the Client-Clinician Assessment Protocol Part I on 2 occasions: at baseline and follow-up. The Client-Clinician Assessment Protocol Part I provided data on the clients' self-rated independence, difficulty, and safety in everyday life. Analyzes to investigate changes in self-rated ability were conducted with parametric statistics. It was found that subjects who had received home modifications reported a statistically significant improvement in their self-rated ability in everyday life compared with those in the comparison group. Subjects who had received home modifications reported less difficulty and increased safety, especially in tasks related to self-care in the bathroom and transfers, such as getting in and out of the home.

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU: The authors concluded that home modifications have a positive impact on self-rated ability in everyday life, especially on decreasing the level of difficulty and increasing safety. Home modification also could have established stimuli that served as prompts for patients to take actions to improve other aspects of their daily living.

I Petersson et al. Impact of home modification services on ability in everyday life for people ageing with disabilities. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2008;40:253-260.