Interventions affecting self-care, productivity, and leisure among adults: a scoping review

This study is a scoping review of 21 years of international occupational therapy literature. Its purpose is to identify and describe interventions used by occupational therapists to enable self-care, productivity, and leisure. The scoping review produced 59 articles published between 1990 and 2010. Nine articles evaluated the effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions focused on leisure outcomes, 21 on productivity outcomes, and 29 on self-care outcomes. The programs were classified according to eight types of interventions: training, education, skill development, task adaptation, occupational development, environmental modification, support provision, and support enhancement. Most studies produced at least one significant positive result (82%), indicating that occupational therapy programs were at least partially successful in improving self-care, productivity, or leisure. There is good evidence for task adaptation, training, and skill development interventions, and for the role of occupational therapy in multi-disciplinary teams.