Affiliations: Department of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Correspondence:
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Address for Correspondence: Carina Tjörnstrand, Department of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science, Lund University, Box 157, SE 221 00 Lund, Sweden. E-mail: Carina.tjornstrand@med.lu.se.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Day centers have been criticized for giving attendees a lower social status because they only offer activities that are often work-like although not financially of benefit to attendees. OBJECTIVES: To explore day center attendees’ perceived social status and to identify associations among the attendees with the center’s orientation with activity, well-being, and psychiatric symptoms. METHOD: Day center attendees in meeting place-oriented (n = 39) and work-oriented (n = 54) day centers in Sweden were interviewed addressing the targeted factors using both self-rated and interview-based instruments. RESULT: Attendees rated themselves close to the middle on the social status measure. No difference between groups based on day center orientation was found. Their self-perceived positioning on social status was positively related to the worker role, occupational engagement, self-rated health, self-esteem, self-mastery, and depressive symptoms. Logistic regression models showed better self-rated health was the only predictor of belonging to the group with a higher level of social status when dichotomized according to the median. Self-rated health was the strongest indicator for scoring above the 75th percentile on perceived status, followed by self-esteem, which was also a significant indicator. CONCLUSION: These findings yielded new knowledge concerning perceived social status in the target group and the importance of health and self-esteem.
Keywords: Health, occupational engagement, occupational therapy, community mental health, social capital
