Occupational Therapists' Use of Interpretative Description: A Scoping Review

Interpretive description is a qualitative research methodology. The aim of this study was to map the use of interpretive description in occupational therapy research and understand its implementation. Peer-reviewed studies were located from Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre (ANZRC), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Medline, Proquest, Pubmed, and Google Scholar. Eligible studies focused on occupational therapy/science research, by occupational therapists, using interpretive description. Data extracted were location, research question/aim, methods, explicit use of credibility criteria, explicit disciplinary positioning, authors' and participants' ethnicities stated, and number of citations. Forty-two articles were included, published between 2014 and 2023. Use of interpretive description has steadily increased, most commonly using semi-structured interviews, exploring peoples' experiences to inform and influence practice. Reported positioning of the researcher(s) in terms of reflexivity, culture, and disciplinary perspective was limited. Occupational therapy researchers using interpretive description should position themselves in terms of discipline, culture, and theoretical lens effectively, adhere to credibility criteria and utilize opportunities for diverse data collection methods.