Role of Occupational Therapy for Persons Experiencing Long COVID: A Rapid Review

BackgroundIndividuals with long COVID experience persisting symptoms that affect daily life, particularly functional performance. Occupational therapists are well positioned to support this population given their expertise across broader health domains.PurposeThis rapid review describes the existing literature on the role of occupational therapy for adults and older adults with long COVID across the healthcare continuum.MethodsA search was conducted across MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE, and CINAHL (Ebsco) databases from January 1, 2020, to December 4, 2024.FindingsTwenty-one articles were included for data extraction. The occupational therapy role involved addressing key long COVID symptoms (e.g., fatigue, weakness, and cognitive impairments) that influenced daily occupational performance. Occupational therapy interventions were primarily delivered in rehabilitation settings and included retraining in activities of daily living, cognitive rehabilitation, physical and breathing exercises, patient education, return-to-work planning, and psychosocial support.ConclusionThe occupational therapy role involved addressing long COVID symptoms to regain functional independence to enable occupational engagement, primarily through patient education. Studies focused more on interprofessional, team-based interventions, versus occupational therapy-specific interventions in isolation. This highlights the need for further research on the unique role of occupational therapy within interprofessional teams and along the care continuum for more generalizable findings.