Participants in this arm received a structured, client-centered occupational therapy intervention focused on occupational balance. The program consisted of 8 weekly individual sessions (45 minutes each), delivered either face-to-face or online. The intervention was based on Wagman and Håkansson's three dimensions: occupational areas, occupations of different characteristics, and time use. Techniques such as habit stacking, energy conservation, and time management strategies were implemented.

The control group received a single session of occupational balance and life pattern awareness sessions.

The intervention was structured around Wagman and Håkansson's three dimensions of occupational balance: occupational areas, occupations of different characteristics, and time use.

Occupational Areas: Focused on self-care, productivity, and leisure. Participants utilized "tiny habits" and habit-stacking strategies to integrate these areas into their daily routines.

Occupations of Different Characteristics: Addressed the nature of activities. It combined energy conservation for physical tasks, stress management for mental occupations, and social engagement. A personalized "Occupational Menu" was created to balance active and passive recreation.

Time Use: Concentrated on identifying "time consumers" and applying a five-step time management strategy. Participants developed individualized timelines based on their COPM results.

Delivered over eight weeks, the program used weekly feedback on time-use patterns to ensure a client-centered approach to achieving occupational harmony.

Wagman and Ha˚kansson (2014) developed the Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ), a scale that measures self-rated occupational balance. The questionnaire had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha¼0.936) and adequate test-retest reliability (Spearman's rho¼0.926 for total score) in healthy adults. The OBQ was designed to analyze both at-item level and as a summed total score (Wagman, & Ha˚kansson, 2014). Ha˚kansson et al. (2020) reported that the OBQ11 had good reliability (0.92), model fit, and measurement invariance across age and gender groups. Günal et al. (2020) performed the Turkish adaptation and validity and reliability studies to obtain the OBQ11-T. Test-retest reliability of the OBQ11-T was 0.922, and Cronbach's alpha for OBQ11-T total score was 0.785. The scale consists of 11 items scored on a 4-point scale from 'strongly disagree' (scored 0) to 'strongly agree' (scored 3). The total score is obtained by summing the individual items and ranges from 0 to 33. Higher

It is a semi-structured scale that helps to identify problematic areas of performance experienced by individuals and to measure their perceived occupational performance and occupational satisfaction. This scale assesses the level of performance of self-care, productivity and leisure occupations and satisfaction with these performances as perceived by the individual. The importance of each occupation is measured on a 10-point scale (1 = not at all important, 10 = very important) according to the individual's perception. In the next step, the individual is asked to select five occupations that he/she considers most important and to rate separately his/her performance (1 = could not do it, 10 = could do it very well) and satisfaction (1 = not satisfied, 10 = very satisfied) in these occupations (Torpil et al., 2021). Cronbach's alpha for COPM Turkish total score was 0.95.

The scale was developed by Zarit, Reever, and Bach-Peterson in 1980 to assess the difficulties experienced by caregivers (93). It consists of 22 items, each scored on a scale from 0 to 4, yielding a total score ranging from 0 to 88. Scores between 0-22 indicate little or no caregiving burden, 21-40 indicate a moderate burden, 41-60 indicate a severe burden, and 61-88 indicate an excessive caregiving burden. The Turkish validity and reliability study of the scale was conducted by İnci et al., and the Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient was reported as 0.95