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Introduction: A client-centred approach ensures that individuals can express what’s most important to them, with therapists providing collaborative support. This study examined factors influencing the quality of collaborative relationships between clients and occupational therapists and explored how the strength of these relationships affects therapy outcomes. Method: A prospective longitudinal observational study was conducted at day care centres across Japan, with participants followed for 1 year. Occupational therapists delivered occupational therapy guided by a client-centred approach. Outcomes, including daily activities and health-related quality of life, were measured before and after the intervention. The Collaborative Relationship Scale (CRS) was used to assess baseline relationship quality. Results: Among 101 participants (aged 47–93 years), CRS scores categorised them into good, neutral, and poor relationship groups. Logistic regression revealed that goal achievement and clients’ understanding of occupational therapy were associated with relationship quality. Over 50% of participants in the good relationship group had activities of daily living goals, whereas more than 50% in the poor relationship group had mobility goals. Conclusion: Strong collaborative relationships may positively influence occupational therapy processes and outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of goal setting within occupational therapy guided by a client-centred approach in enhancing therapeutic relationships.

Objectives: This study was conducted to examine the situation awareness of stroke patients by means of the simulation and practice for driving in rain (SPDR). Methods: Twenty-one stroke patients underwent the SPDR. Then, semi-structured interviews were conducted before and after the SPDR. The data of the interviews were analyzed through qualitative analysis based on content analysis. Results: As a result of the qualitative analysis, it was found that many patients became aware of driving risks, of which they had not previously been aware, through the simulation; these were categorized as improved awareness and confusion. Conclusions: The findings from the qualitative approach indicate that the SPDR is a useful strategy for stroke patients to improve the awareness of driving risks.

Introduction: This study lays the groundwork for the Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model (OTIPM) run by occupational therapy practitioners for patients with stroke. We explored the feasibility of a treatment approach based on the OTIPM for patients with stroke and the clinical feasibility of evaluating the degree of a collaborative relationship between patients and occupational therapists. Method: This pilot trial was conducted as a one-group pre-test–post-test study and two-group comparison on 16 patients with stroke in the convalescence stage. We used the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), Functional Independence Measure, Japan Stroke Scale of Motor Function, and the Collaborative Relationship Scale between clients and occupational therapists to assess outcomes. Results: Patients demonstrated a significant improvement on the outcome measures after intervention. Moreover, the good collaborative relationship group demonstrated significantly higher process skills in AMPS and satisfaction in COPM than the poor collaborative relationship group. Conclusion: This preliminary study revealed that short-term OTIPM for patients with stroke may be a feasible clinical practice. In addition, evaluating the degree of the difference in the collaborative relationship between patients and occupational therapists would be a feasible clinical practice.

[Purpose] When using chopsticks with a standard grip, the lower chopstick is held firmly; the upper chopstick dominates the motion between open and closed postures. This study’s primary aim was to evaluate the stability of the lower chopstick when maneuvering with the dominant hand. The secondary goal was to test whether using chopsticks with the non-dominant hand improves the stability of the lower chopstick. [Participants and Methods] The study included 34 healthy adults as participants. Motion capture was used to assess the stability of a lower chopstick held with the dominant hand and explore the effect of training on lower chopstick stability with the non-dominant hand. [Results] Prior to non-dominant hand chopstick training, the stability of the lower chopstick was significantly greater when held with the dominant hand than when held with the non-dominant hand. However, after 10 days of non-dominant hand chopstick training, the stability of the lower chopstick held with the non-dominant hand improved significantly. [Conclusion] This study’s findings provide important insights into the effectiveness of non-dominant hand training in patients who need to use their non-dominant hands.

The acquisition of chopstick skills is considered essential for child development and etiquette in many Asian cultures. However, a decline in chopstick education has been observed in Japan, and the underlying causes of this phenomenon remain elusive. This study aims to investigate children’s chopstick skills and develop an objective method to evaluate them using a hand posture estimation model. In this study. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 165 first-grade elementary school students (aged 6–7) and their parents to investigate factors influencing chopstick proficiency. To complement this, video analyses were performed using a hand posture estimation model to assess the accuracy of chopstick grip classification. The findings showed that children’s chopstick-holding styles could be classified into four categories: four-finger prehension (64 participants), three-finger prehension (49 participants), palm prehension (20 participants), and others (32 participants). Despite the fact that over 80% of parents reported teaching their children how to use chopsticks, a mere 9.7% of children exhibited correct chopstick-holding technique. Interestingly, factors such as intergenerational cohabitation with grandparents and child’s age significantly influenced chopstick proficiency. These results indicate that a gap exists in the intergenerational transmission of chopstick skills, with parents potentially lacking sufficient knowledge to teach their children. The hand posture estimation model had a high accuracy rate of 85%, precision of 83%, and recall of 88% to identify whether children use chopsticks traditionally. While chopstick education is predominantly conducted within Japanese households, the increasing prevalence of nuclear families and dual-income households suggests a decline in intergenerational transmission of chopstick education. To address this issue, it is imperative to develop web applications that can integrate chopstick education into school curricula and promote chopstick skills among students.