Louise Demers

• PhD
• Head of Department at Université de Montréal

Purpose: This study aimed to better understand how the powered wheelchair (PWC) impacts the experiences of family caregivers of PWC users, and explore the strategies and resources used by caregivers to cope with their role. Materials and methods: This mixed-methods study was part of a larger cross-sectional research study conducted in four Canad...

The Assistive Technology Device Predisposition Assessment (ATD PA) provides a consumer-centered approach to assessing the match of person and technology. To address the psychometric properties and predictive validity of the ATD PA, 139 participants in a longitudinal (prospective) multi-cohort study completed the ATD PA at baseline and 6 months foll...

To measure predisposition to ATD use and its relationship with subsequent use, 139 participants in a longitudinal (prospective) multi-cohort study completed the Assistive Technology Device Predisposition Assessment (ATD PA) at baseline and this data was compared to ATD continued use, discontinued use or substituted devices at 6 months follow-up. Th...

Background Preferences of informal caregivers of people with neurocognitive disorders for technological solutions are important in user- centered design approaches. It is crucial to take into consideration the needs and preferences of users when developing new technology to facilitate their uptake. Objectives The objective of this study was to det...

Purpose Power wheelchairs (PWCs) can enhance independent mobility. The World Health Organization recommends training PWC users. However, current PWC training approaches do not always meet the needs of PWC users with complex mobility and cognitive impairment. The aim was to co-develop an innovative approach to PWC training for individuals with compl...

Training and follow-up for older adults who received new assistive technology can improve device use adoption and function, but there is a lack of systematic and coordinated services. To address this gap, the Internet-based MOvIT+™ was designed to provide remote monitoring and support for assistive technology users and their caregivers. This paper...

The general objective of these reviews will be to assess the psychometric properties of the measures used for the assessment of rehabilitation technologies and related services. This general objective will answer following question: What is the quality of measures that were used to assess the usability (effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction) of r...

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility and the clinical applicability of administering the COMET (cognition, occupation, mobility, evaluation and training) intervention. Materials and methods: A pilot research was conducted with adults who were being considered for power wheelchair (PWC) provision, or who were recently provided a PWC, and who had...

Family carers of older adults with disability often both experience stress that may affect their ability to provide care, and find some caregiving activities differentially challenging. The objectives of this research are to identify the caregiving activities that are most problematic to carers and to explore the reasons why carers found these acti...

Objectives Ambient assisted living technologies (AALTs) are being used to help community-dwelling older adults (OAs) age in place. Although many AALT are available, their acceptance (perceived usefulness, ease of use, intention to use and actual usage) is needed to improve their design and impact. This study aims to 1) identify AALTs that underwent...

Background Backed by over 20 years of research development, the Wheelchair Skills Program (WSP) has proven to be a safe and effective program to improving wheelchair skills for adult wheelchair users. However, evidence is lacking for the pediatric population, which may help to explain the limited use of the WSP in pediatric settings. While addition...

Background/Objectives Medication management is challenging for persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their caregivers. Electronic medication management devices (eMMDs) are specifically designed to support this task. However, theory-driven interventions for eMMD training with this population are rarely described. This study aimed to develop and...

Background: Backed by over 20 years of research development, the Wheelchair Skills Program (WSP) has proven to be a safe and effective program to improving wheelchair skills for adult wheelchair users. However, evidence is lacking for the pediatric population, which may help to explain the limited use of the WSP in pediatric settings. While additio...

As rehabilitation specialists, occupational therapy practitioners play a gateway role regarding recommendation of various technologies for homecare. However, no study has investigated current occupational therapy practices concerning information and communication technology (ICT) for older adults in Canada. The objective of this study was to identi...

The negative effects of caring are well documented; however, positive effects have received less attention. A scoping review of 22 studies published between 2000 and 2018 was conducted regarding the positive effects of family caring for older adults. Our analysis revealed that positive effects are embedded in relationships, summarised in three them...

Background Grab bars are a common fall prevention strategy in the bathroom, but biomechanical data are lacking to support clinicians' interventions. This study aims to determine the magnitude and duration of the force applied to four grab bar configurations during complete bathtub transfers on a potentially slippery surface. Methods A three factor...

BACKGROUND Consequences related to caregiving are multidimensional. Ways to reduce burden should be investigated, such as the use of assistive technology (AT). AT can decrease family caregiver burden, but there are multiple barriers to their uptake. A mixed-method project was launched to understand the needs of family caregivers and how could techn...

Background Prioritizing referrals for home care occupational therapy is somewhat subjective, and public and patient perspectives on waiting list priorities are unknown. Purpose To explore the views of home care occupational therapists (OTs), older persons (OPs) and adults with disabilities on waiting list priorities, as well as issues and challeng...

Purpose: This systematic review examines intervention studies using Tai Chi in the early stages of dementia to determine the effectiveness of Tai Chi for the short-term improvement of cognitive functions for elderly persons with the disease. Methods: A keyword search was done in PubMed/MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literatu...

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a neurodegenerative disease affecting the posterior region of the brain. Little is known about both the impact of PCA on functioning and how to support patients on a daily basis. The purpose of this study was to describe the functional profile of DD, a woman diagnosed with PCA, as well as to explore a pilot cogni...

Objectives: 1) To assess the agreement and correlation between self-reported functional independence and observations of family caregivers in a heterogeneous population of community-dwelling older adults with disabilities. 2) To determine how self- and caregiver-reports correlate with evaluator rated functional independence over time. Design: Da...

Objective: To examine the change over 1 year in the burden, wheelchair skills, social support, social participation, and mental health of family caregivers providing assistance to older adult powered wheelchair users. Design: Longitudinal study. Setting: Community. Participants: Participants (N=35) included family caregivers (mean age ± SD=6...

Background: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies show conflicting results regarding the association between cognition and life-space mobility, and little is known regarding the mediators and moderators of the association. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between cognition and life-space mobility in older adults, as well...

BACKGROUND Many community-dwelling individuals living with a disability use mobility assistive technology (MAT). There is good evidence that MAT is generally beneficial for individuals with mobility impairments. However, less is known about the specific factors that may foster or deter mobility and community participation in day-to-day life. OBJEC...

About 65 million people use wheelchairs worldwide. Powered wheelchairs offer independent mobility for those who find it difficult to propel a manual wheelchair. Previous studies have described powered wheelchairs as a mixed blessing for the users in terms of usability, accessibility, safety, cost and stigma; however, few studies have explored their...

Introduction/Background Caregivers are critical to the health and support of older people with disabilities. Canada's technology and aging network, AGE-WELL (agewell-nce.ca), is dedicated to the creation of technologies and services that benefit older adults and caregivers. One important research theme within this network focuses on the development...

Abstract Background The principal aim of this study was to investigate whether a caregiver-inclusive assistive technology intervention improved older care recipients’ functional autonomy and decreased the perceived burden of their family caregivers compared to customary care. Methods The study was a single-blind, mixed-methods, randomized controlle...

Objective: The objectives of this study were to test the hypothesis that caregivers enhance the wheelchair skills capacity and confidence of the power wheelchair users to whom they provide assistance and to describe the nature of that assistance. Design: Multi-center cross-sectional study. Setting: Rehabilitation centers and communities. Part...

In this systematic literature review, we examined whether and how walking aids (i.e., canes, crutches, walkers, and rollators) enable activity and participation among adults with physical disabilities. Medline, Embase, all EBM reviews, PsychInfo, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases were used to identify studies published since 2008. Quantitative a...

Aims: Study the responsiveness of the Box and Block Test (BBT) with older adults in rehabilitation. Methods: For a larger study on the responsiveness of several outcome measures, 264 older adults were recruited in rehabilitation units (RU) and day hospitals (DH) and assessed four times during their rehabilitation. For the present study, only the da...

Background When trying to access interventions to improve their well-being and quality of life, family caregivers face many challenges. Internet-based interventions provide new and accessible opportunities to remotely support them and can contribute to reducing their burden. However, little is known about the link existing between the components, t...

Qualitative data from a mixed-methods clinical trial are used to examine caregivers’ experiences with the selection and use of assistive technology to facilitate care recipients’ independence. Through a thematic analysis of interviews from 27 caregivers, three broad themes were identified. “A partial peace of mind” described the generally positive...

Current studies show the relevance of geriatric prevention and rehabilitation programs to slow down the development of disability in community-dwelling older adults who are becoming frail. This evidence reveals the importance of improving knowledge on how individual components of frailty and specific disability in basic and instrumental activities...

Objective: To compare the preferences of occupational therapists, elderly people and adults with disabilities regarding prioritization criteria for occupational therapy waiting lists in home care. Design: Discrete choice experiment survey. Respondents completed eight choice tasks where they were asked to choose which of two referral scenarios sh...

Power wheelchairs (PWC) are essential devices, especially for people with severe disability. Research has suggested that PWC can have a positive impact on mobility, participation and well-being. However, they may also be problematic in terms of usability, safety, and cost. Currently, little is known about power mobility use over time. This study in...

Family caregivers provide 75% of care needed for individuals with disabilities to remain in their communities. Many family caregivers in Canada experience negative health, social and financial outcomes. Innovative solutions (or interventions) are needed that can ameliorate the deleterious aspects of caregiving and foster positive ones. Therefore, w...

Internet-based interventions helping caregivers of older adults to cope with caregiving tasks can offer an efficient and accessible alternative to traditional face-to-face interventions. However, little is known about the existing links between intervention components and outcomes. A systematic review was conducted in databases with keywords releva...

Many studies show that people with dementia are able to learn skills, but findings concerning their ability to use technologies are inconsistent. Therefore, details about active ingredients that make intervention using technologies successful are needed. This study describes the development and evaluation of a rehabilitation approach integrating sp...

Caregiver burnout is a serious concern among informal caregivers, especially for those who provide care to individuals with more severe limitations such as power mobility users. The Power Wheelchair Caregiver Assistive Technology Outcome Measure tool measures device specific and overall burden experienced by informal caregivers of power mobility us...

Objective: In this study, we aimed to describe the burden of family caregivers providing powered wheelchair-related and overall assistance and test the hypotheses that caregiver burden correlates with participation, wheelchair skills capacity, anxiety, depression, and social support. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Participants included 35 family c...

Background: Many older adults with mobility limitations use assistive technology to help them perform daily activities. However, little attention has been paid to the impact on their family caregivers. This neglect produces an incomplete portrayal of the outcomes of assistive technology provision. This paper describes the protocol for a study that...

Purpose To determine the factorial validity, internal consistency, criterion-related and concurrent validity of the Perception of Quality of Rehabilitation Services - Montreal (PQRS-Montreal) questionnaire for persons receiving traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation services. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Seventeen facilities providing...

Objective: To evaluate the relation among the measures in a power wheelchair outcomes toolkit. Design: We performed path analysis of cross-sectional data from self-report questionnaires and 1 objective measure. Setting: Six sites. Participants: A convenience sample of power wheelchair users (N=128). Most (n=69; 53.9%) participants were women...

To test the hypothesis that powered wheelchair users who receive the Wheelchair Skills Training Program (WSTP) improve their wheelchair skills in comparison with a Control group that receives standard care. Our secondary objectives were to assess goal achievement, satisfaction with training, retention, injury rate, confidence with wheelchair use an...

This study aimed to (1) determine the categories of behavioral coping strategies most strongly correlated with optimal seniors' social participation in different activity and role domains and (2) identify the demographic, health and environmental factors associated with the use of these coping strategies optimizing social participation. The sample...

Purpose: To explore power wheelchair users', caregivers' and clinicians' perspectives regarding the potential impact of intelligent power wheelchair use on social participation. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with power wheelchair users (n = 12), caregivers (n = 4) and clinicians (n = 12). An illustrative video was used to fa...

Assistive technology is often recommended with the aim of increasing user independence and reducing the burden on informal caregivers. However, until now, there has been no tool to measure the outcomes of this process for caregivers. To describe the development of the Caregiver Assistive Technology Outcome Measure (CATOM), a tool developed to measu...

Referral prioritisation is commonly used in home-based occupational therapy to minimise the negative impacts of waiting, but this practice is not standardised. This may lead to inequities in access to care, especially for clients considered as low priority, who tend to bear the brunt of lengthy waiting lists. This cross-sectional study aimed to des...

The assessment of patient satisfaction with the orthosis is a key point for clinical practice and research, requiring the availability of questionnaires with robust psychometric properties. The aim of this study was the translation into Arabic and Rasch validation of the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (A-QUEST 2.0)...

Purpose: The Upper Limb Functional Index (ULFI) is a self-report questionnaire assessing activity limitations and participation restrictions resulting from an upper limb musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). A French Canadian version of the ULFI (ULFI-FC) has recently demonstrated good internal consistency, and convergent validity, as well as clinical a...

Purpose: There is limited information on the difficulties individuals experience in manoeuvring their power wheelchairs during daily activities. The aim of this study was to describe the nature and context of power wheelchair driving challenges from the perspective of the user. Methods: A qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with...

Power wheelchairs (PWCs) can have a positive impact on user well-being, self-esteem, pain, activity and participation. Newly developed intelligent power wheelchairs (IPWs), allowing autonomous or collaboratively-controlled navigation, could enhance mobility of individuals not able to use, or having difficulty using, standard PWCs. The objective of...

Purpose: To develop a French Canadian version of the Falls Behavioral (FaB) Scale and examine its psychometric properties. Methods: The FaB was adapted in French Canadian (FaB-FC) and validated according to standard guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of questionnaires. The internal consistency and construct validity of the FaB-FC were stud...

Background/aims Prioritising referrals on waiting lists is common practice in rehabilitation. However, little is known about the exact criteria that are used in home-based occupational therapy to determine the level of urgency. This study aimed to identify prioritisation criteria in home-based occupational therapy services in Quebec, Canada, and to...

Background Many people with mobility impairments, who require the use of powered wheelchairs, have difficulty completing basic maneuvering tasks during their activities of daily living (ADL). In order to provide assistance to this population, robotic and intelligent system technologies have been used to design an intelligent powered wheelchair (IPW...

Objective: The aim of this study was to demonstrate experimentally that an assistive technology (AT) intervention improves older AT users' activity performance and satisfaction with activity performance and decreases their caregivers' sense of burden. Design: This study was a delayed intervention, randomized control trial. Baseline data were col...

The objective of this study was to present the characteristics of and compare new and experienced power wheelchair users over a 1 year period. Sixty-seven older adult power wheelchair users completed outcome measures assessing participation, life space travelled, wheelchair skills, wheelchair confidence, social support, anxiety and depression. Prel...

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine: (i) the proportion of frail older adults who demonstrate (a) statistically significant and (b) clinically meaningful differences between home and clinic cooking task performance; and (ii) factors associated with a better performance in each environment. Methods:Thirty-seven participants were evaluate...

Informal caregivers are a critical yet frequently unacknowledged part of the healthcare system. It is commonly presumed that providing assistive technology will decrease the burden of their care provision; however, no review has evaluated the evidence behind this assumption. Therefore, a systematic review was undertaken to evaluate evidence of the...

Meal preparation assessments conducted in clinical environments (such as rehabilitation settings) might not reflect frail patients' performance at home. In addition, factors that may explain differences in performance between settings remain unknown. The aim of this study was to compare home and clinic performance on meal preparation tasks in frail...

To test the hypotheses that, in comparison with a control group that received standard care, users of manual wheelchairs who also received the French-Canadian version of the Wheelchair Skills Training Program (WSTP) would significantly improve their wheelchair-skills capacity and that these improvements would be retained at 3 months. Multicenter, s...

This paper evaluates four classifications of assistive technology (AT) services for their ability to support outcomes research. The evaluation involved classifications intended for various purposes, including those created to support practitioner education and third-party reimbursement decisions. Each was analyzed according to a common framework: a...

Hospitalized frail older patients are usually assessed for their ability to perform some daily living activities in a clinical setting prior to discharge. However, assessments that take place in this unfamiliar environment might not be as representative of their functional performance as assessments at home. This may be related to a decline in some...

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are often referred to pulmonary rehabilitation programs to manage their symptoms and the consequences of the disease on their lives. Finding ways to target programs to a specific patient’s needs could help improve individual response to the program. The purpose of this study was to develop a conce...

Participation refers to the engagement of a person in daily activities and social roles. The goal of this study was to compare changes in older adults' participation over time following a stroke as a function of the presence of deficits in memory, visual perception, executive functions, visual attention or language. A total of 197 persons with stro...

Objective. This presentation describes caregiver and clinician involvement in the ongoing development and evaluation of the Caregiver Assistive Technology Outcome Measure (CATOM). This tool measures the impact of assistive technology interventions on the burden experienced by informal caregivers. Main Content. Our preliminary goal was to create a c...

This article reports on the development of a new taxonomy for mobility-related assistive technology devices. A prototype taxonomy was created based on the extant literature. Five mobility device experts were engaged in a modified Delphi process to evaluate and refine the taxonomy. Multiple iterations of expert feedback and revision yielded consensu...

Recent reports in the rehabilitation literature have suggested that treatment theory, intervention specification, and treatment fidelity have important implications for the design, results, and interpretation of outcomes research. At the same time, there has been relatively little discussion of how these concepts bear on the quality of assistive te...

RÉSUMÉ Il n’existe pas de données sur l’offre de service en réadaptation pour les aînés ayant subi un accident vasculaire cérébral (AVC) selon le type de régions. Une enquête a permis de documenter l’offre des services de réadaptation proposés à la clientèle aînée de 65 ans et plus ayant subi un AVC. Au total, les répondants de 295 ressources local...

To examine the measurement properties of the tele-phone administration of the Wheelchair Outcome Measure (WhOM). Power mobility device users aged 50-89 years. Two independent cohorts were recruited: (i) a prospective cohort (n = 40) to estimate test-retest reliability and to determine the applicability of the telephone format, and (ii) a cross-sect...

To examine whether the impact of power mobility devices (PMDs) varies as a function of stage of usage and to explore key factors associated with greater life-space mobility for middle-aged and older adults. Multicohort study with respondents grouped as a function of stage of PMD usage (reference group with mobility impairments, n=42; initial users,...