Feasibility of the Perceive, Recall, Plan and Perform system of intervention for persons with brain injury in community-based rehabilitation: a pilot for a multiple-baseline design study

OBJECTIVES: This paper describes a pilot study investigating the feasibility of the Perceive, Recall, Plan and Perform (PRPP) system for persons with cognitive impairments after acquired brain injury in the context of community-based rehabilitation for older individuals. DESIGN: The feasibility, acceptability and practicability of the research procedures were evaluated by exploring the effectiveness of the PRPP intervention with non-concurrent multiple baseline designs. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Three participants (63+years of age) from two health centres were included. INTERVENTION: In the PRPP intervention, the occupational therapist (OT) supports the participant in applying cognitive strategies in everyday activities to enhance task mastery, with nine sessions of 45–60 min over 3 weeks. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The participants completed measurements of five everyday tasks in each phase as dependent variables. PRPP assessment stages 1 and 2 served as the primary and secondary outcome measures, respectively. The percentage of mastery of the tasks and the participants’ application of cognitive strategies at baseline acted as a control and was therefore compared with the other phases within the participant. The Goal Attainment Scale and Barthel Index served as generalisation measures. The uncertainties and acceptability of the procedures were also investigated with a procedural checklist and qualitative statements reported in the procedures or noted in dialogue meetings with the conducting OTs. RESULTS: The procedures were acceptable for the OT and the participants and were feasible if the steps in the research procedure were clearly understood. The target behaviour should be changed to the use of one task with five measurement points instead of measuring five tasks. This can enable the application of recommended analysis methods. CONCLUSIONS: The outcomes of this study led to a change in the target behaviour and clarification of the research procedure for the planned PRPP intervention study. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05148247.