Ben Mortenson, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, and Brodie Sakakibara, PhD candidate in Rehabilitation Sciences, won prizes for their poster presentations in the CIHR Institute of Aging poster competition at the Canadian Association on Gerontology’s 41st Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting.
Ben Mortenson
Dr. Mortenson received the post-doctoral prize for his poster titled “A novel assistive technology intervention for older adults with disabilities and their informal caregivers: Results from a preliminary randomized control trial.” He conducted the research with Dr. Louise Demers at the University of Montreal. It is the first experimental study to demonstrate that the provision of assistive technology benefits both users and their informal caregivers. In addition, a paper based on this work has been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (currently in press).
Brodie Sakakibara
Sakakibara received the doctoral prize for his poster titled “Sex as a moderator of the relationship between confidence with using a manual wheelchair and frequency of participation.” He conducted the research with Dr. Bill Miller, Professor in the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy. Sakakibara’s research investigated the relationship between wheelchair confidence and frequency of participation in social and personal roles, and examined whether that relationship was different for men versus women. Results indicated that that relationship was in fact stronger for men than women, pointing to a need for treatments that improve wheelchair confidence to improve quality of life and participation, especially among older male wheelchair users.
The CIHR Institute of Aging and the Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) sponsor the Student Poster Competition at each CAG Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting. A prize is awarded in each of the following categories: Master, PhD, and Post-doctoral. The CAG’s 41st Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting was held in Vancouver on October 18 – 20, 2012.